Gauck said he was himself unsure as to how much material remained under his control, in comparison with what there had been before. But the Federal Interior Ministry did confirm on Monday 3rd April that all the Stasi phone-tapping documents in the possession of West German authorities were destroyed in 1990, on the orders of the Kohl cabinet. The ministry added that such a decision would be impossible today because the law on Stasi documents forbids it. West German politicians should not be able to benefit from the luck of having a West German post code when anyone in Eastern Germany who listened in on his student friends twenty years ago is forbidden from holding public office. No democracy please, we're German The Chairman of the European Committee of the Bundestag has rejected suggestions that German democracy should be strengthened by the greater use of referendums.
Political questions are far too complex for a yes or no answer.
They seem to amount to telling the Germans to leave politics to the experts and to continue to sit at home quietly paying their taxes for the country's state-funded parties. Dr. Pfluger hates confrontation in politics. Politics is about solving problems, not exploiting them for the political struggle. He sees the future for reform of the CDU in studying opinion polls and doing what they say. In short, it's gripping stuff.