Kohl's coalition partners angry at desertion claim

THE liberal Free Democrats (FDP), junior partners in Dr Helmut Kohl's centre right coalition, have reacted angrily to opposition claims that some of their Bundestag deputies are preparing to desert the government.

Mr Rudolf Scharping, parliamentary leader of the opposition Social Democrats (SPD), said yesterday that he knew the names of at least three Liberals who had already discussed joining his party as "guest members".

But the FDP general secretary, Mr Guido Westerwelle, accused Mr Scharping of conducting a vicious campaign against his party based on blatant lies. "He doesn't know any names because there are no names," he said.

The Social Democrat claims have raised new doubts about the prospects of Dr Kohl's government, which has a majority of only 10 seats, lasting a full term to 1998.

The coalition parties have been bickering openly about taxation in recent weeks, with the FDP demanding tax cuts which are resisted by the Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU).

Dr Kohl scolded the FDP in a radio interview last week, accusing the party of endangering the government in an effort to raise its own profile in the country.

The FDP faces two crucial state elections in March. Party activists fear that being too closely associated with government policies could cost them votes. A poor result in the state elections could persuade the liberals to leave the coalition, but senior Christian Democrats warn that, if this happens, they will call an early election rather than attempt to form a new coalition.

Some of Dr Kohl's advisers relish the prospect of an early election, calculating that the Chancellor would fare better this year than in 1998, the year he plans to abolish the deutschmark in favour of a single European currency.

Most Germans oppose the new currency, and the Social Democrats have signalled that they are prepared to make this a central election issue.

Dr Kohl's challenger as chancellor is likely to be the new SPD chairman, Mr Oskar Lafontaine, a tough campaigner who has promised to end his party's 14 year exile from power in Bonn.

Reuter adds The Israeli President, Mr Ezer Weizman, in an address to the Bonn parliament, urged Germans yesterday to oppose neo Nazism whenever it showed its face.

Mr Weizman, speaking in Hebrew, said it was not easy for him to visit Germany, where he said he heard "voices crying from the earth" from the victims of the Holocaust.