Helmut Kohl Ridicules “Red-Green Anti-Americanism”

The former chancellor Helmut Kohl  spoke in Cologne on Tuesday on the 60th anniversary on the founding of the CDU.  He used the occasion to throw some red meat to his conservative audience and accused the Red-Green coalition of an "inane anti-Americanism":

Mit
drastischen Worten kritisierte Helmut Kohl bei der Feier zum
60-jährigen Bestehen der CDU am Dienstagabend die rot-grüne
Bundesregierung. In Berlin säßen heute viele "dümmliche Gestalten", die
einen "dümmlichen Antiamerikanismus" pflegten.

Presumably, if Helmut Kohl were still chancellor Germany would have joined Poland and Micronesia as part of George W. Bush’s "Coalition of the Willing" in America’s excellent adventure in Iraq.  But Kohl reserved his harshest words for foreign minister Joschka Fischer, calling him basically a rock-throwing liar.  The Green Party was understandably furious at these remarks and demanded an apology.

Blogger Stefan Herre actually attended the event and had words of effusive praise for Kohl  – words he normally reserves for his hero George W. Bush.

Wie gut ginge es Deutschland, wenn Kohl heute noch regieren würde!
(How much better off Germany would be if Kohl were still in office!)

In his speech Kohl was expansive in describing his own role in reconstruction and reunification of Germany, but he tactfully avoided mentioning the financial scandal that brought down the CDU  in 1998 and led to his losing the election to the "inane figures" ("dümmliche Gestalten") of "the other" parties.

CORRECTION: Reader Robert Daguillard, who blogs over at Diderot’s Lounge, points out that the CDU funding scandal was actually AFTER the 1998 election, and so did not play a role in Kohl’s defeat.  A good summary of the scandal can be found here.