A Bit of a Jolt

Ever since Ludwig Erhard became Chancellor a year ago, his Christian Democrats have been confident that his familiar bulky form--the very symbol of peacetime prosperity--would carry the party to an easy victory in next year's nationwide elections. Last week, in municipal elections involving 45% of the voters, their confidence got a bit of a jolt.

Even with Der Dicke's face on the posters, the voters gave Willy Brandt's rival Social Democrats an overall gain of nearly 5%. In West Germany's populous industrial Rhine River heartland, the Socialists won absolute majorities in 24 of the 38 major cities--including Konrad Adenauer's traditionally safe bastion of Cologne.

Local election defeats were hardly important enough to drive the Christian Democrats to despair but, as one party leader put it, "the C.D.U. has been given something to think about." In the thinking of most of the party's top politicians, it had to do with the wavering image of West German leadership--largely because of the transition from old Konrad Adenauer's autocratic rule to Der Dicke's noticeably milder administrative manner. "I can't mend what they smash in Bonn," mourned one losing pro-government candidate last week. Added a high party functionary: "We have had a warning that we must produce some forceful leadership at the top."

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