Awkward allies

摘要

If helmut kohl has nightmares, one of them must surely be of his late and bitter rival Franz Josef Strauss coming back to rule Bavaria. Fantasy, of course. But from the chancellor's viewpoint the reality is hardly better. For Franz Josef Strauss, these days, read Edmund Stoiber. Really? Like Mr Strauss, Mr Stoiber seems to take special glee in crossing Mr Kohl whenever possible. But then his job is "only" that of state premier, albeit one which in tradition-conscious Bavaria is close to monarchical. Mr Strauss was latterly premier too (from 1978 to his death a decade later); but it was his decades-long chairmanship of the Christian Social Union, Bavarian sister party to Mr Kohl's Christian Democrats, which gave him his special clout.