GERMANY Helmut Gets Clobbered

The defeat that Helmut Kohl suffered in the Rhineland-Palatinate last week amounted to a mugging in his backyard. Although the Chancellor was not on the ticket, the polling for the legislature of his home state was seen throughout the country as a referendum on his handling of the merger of the two Germanys. | His Christian Democratic party (CDU) was beaten, 38.7% to 44.8%, by the Social Democrats. Kohl, the state's premier from 1969 to 1976, admitted that the defeat was "personally painful."

Kohl has been criticized for timid handling of Germany's part in the gulf war and apparent callousness about the plight of eastern Germans, 21% of whom are effectively unemployed. But it was his turnabout on taxes that sank his party's fortunes in western Germany, where three-quarters of the voters live. He promised last year that unification could be financed without new taxes, but the immense and growing costs have instead forced him to raise taxes. As of July 1, the average German will pay 7.5% more.

The Rhineland vote had another unpleasant consequence for the Christian Democrats. In Bonn's bicameral legislature, members of the upper house represent the regional governments. With the Rhineland's four seats now going to the Social Democrats, the CDU has lost its majority in the chamber.