Chancellor Schmidt insisted on the missile modernization alternative so as not to leave any gaps in the Western security shield but at the same time tried to keep the damage to the German-German relationship within limits. Schmidt visited the GDR, but without getting any substantial concessions from its leader, Erich Honecker. The regime’s hardening ideological stance was not least a reaction to the growing protest movements in neighboring Poland, where more and more people were demanding economic reform, freedom and disarmament.

But the missile question was not only problematical in the East. In Bonn the FDP decided to change its tack on economic policy and began to move out of the coalition. Grass-roots SPD followers, largely because of pressure from the peace movement and some union factions, withdrew their support for Schmidt for adhering to the NATO two-track decision. As a result, Helmut Kohl replaced him as Chancellor at the head of a CDU/CSU/FDP coalition after a constructive vote of no confidence on 1 October 1982.