A serious new snag has blown up that could prevent the privatisation of the Deutsche Bundespost Telekom, Reuter reports from Bonn: the Free Democrats, junior partners in Chancellor Kohl’s coalition have set a new condition that is certain to be rejected by the opposition Social Democrats – and a 75% majority in the Bundestag is required for the change in the constitution to make privatisation possible; showing themselves to be much more free market-minded than the Christian Democrats, they are insisting that the draft post and telecommunications reform legislation should contain clear language spelling out the end of the telephone and postal monopolies by the year 2000 otherwise, they argue, the reform would amount to nothing more than privatising monopolies, which would do nothing to increase competition; their economic affairs spokesman, Count Otto Lambsdorff, argued that Germany’s ability to compete in the rapidly changing telecommunications market was at stake – If it is not possible to set a date for the end of the monopolies, then only those parts of the postal reform should go ahead that do not require changing the constitution and therefore the approval of the Social Democrats, Lambsdorff said – but this would make it impossible for Telekom to be privatised and floated.
