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German President resigns after a scandal over political favours

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S

Sickboy007

Member
BERLIN, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Angela Merkel's hand-picked choice for the ceremonial post of president resigned on Friday in a scandal over political favours, dealing a blow to the German chancellor in the midst of the euro zone crisis.

In a curt five-minute statement at the Bellevue presidential palace, Christian Wulff said he had lost the trust of the German people, making it impossible to continue in a role that is meant to serve as a moral compass for the nation.

"For this reason it is no longer possible for me to exercise the office of president at home and abroad as required," Wulff said, standing next to his wife Bettina.

Merkel postponed a trip to Rome where she was to hold talks with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and made a brief statement after Wulff spoke, saying she regretted his departure.

The situation changed dramatically for Wulff on Thursday evening when state prosecutors in Hannover asked parliament to end his legal immunity over accusations he accepted favours in a prelude to opening an investigation into him.

It is the first time ever that prosecutors have wanted to investigate a German president and the move triggered direct calls from opposition parties for the 52-year old Wulff to go.

He is the second president to step down within two years. His predecessor, former International Monetary Fund chief Horst Koehler, resigned unexpectedly in 2010 after coming under fire for comments he made about the German mission in Afghanistan.

Until now, Wulff, who was conservative state premier of the state of Lower Saxony before becoming president, had said he would stay in office to clear his name. He reiterated his desire to hang on to his post in a briefing with journalists on Thursday evening.

At a time when Merkel is trying to solve the crisis enveloping the single currency bloc, the last thing she needs is the distraction of a presidential resignation and a potentially divisive search for a replacement.

Analysts say Wulff's departure could become a problem for Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) who are struggling to retain control of the states of Schleswig-Holstein and Saarland in elections later this year.

The resignation reflects badly on Merkel's judgement as she forcefully pushed for Wulff's election against a strong opposition candidate who polls show was backed by most Germans. Merkel said she would talk to the opposition this time to find a consensus candidate.

CONSEQUENCES

"This won't be without consequences for Merkel, her reputation will suffer from it," said Gerd Langguth, political scientist at Bonn University.

"She has a good ratings in opinion polls at the moment but what effects it will have on her depends who she names as a new candidate and whether they are convincing or not. If not, she could have problems," he said.

Wulff's image as head of state has suffered badly in recent months and he has been mocked in the German media.

He belatedly apologised for misleading the Lower Saxony state parliament about a cheap 500,000 euro ($650,000) home loan from a businessman friend.

Wulff also admitted to making a "grave mistake" by leaving a message on the answering machine of the editor of Germany's best-selling Bild newspaper threatening a "war" if the daily published a story about his private finance dealings.

He was later criticised for accepting free upgrades for holiday flights for himself and his family as well as staying free of charge at the holiday villas of wealthy businessmen.

A possible successor is Joachim Gauck, an anti-Communist human rights activist in East Germany who ran against Wulff in 2010 and embarrassed Merkel by forcing the election into a third round.

Other potential candidates include Defence Minister Thomas de Maiziere, Labour Minister Ursula von der Leyen and possibly Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, though shifting him to Bellevue palace would leave a gaping hole in Merkel's cabinet in the midst of the euro zone sovereign debt crisis.
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10-berlin-13-01-11-bundespraesident-christian-wulff-begruesst-bundeskanzlerin-angela-merkel-auf-seinem-neujahrsempfang-im-schloss-bellevue.jpg
 
B

BigDug13

Member
So this president accepted favors like discounts on things and he resigns? I don't really understand what that's like. Most of our political parties have accepted lower mortgages and other favors all the time.

Most of our politicians don't resign unless it's a sex scandal. Representative Rangle was busted and censured for bigtime ethical violations and his constituents reelected him in a landslide the following election.

I guess our "best Government on Earth" means that we don't need to resign when disgraced.
 
S

Sickboy007

Member
BigDug13 said:
So this president accepted favors like discounts on things and he resigns? I don't really understand what that's like. Most of our political parties have accepted lower mortgages and other favors all the time.

Most of our politicians don't resign unless it's a sex scandal. Representative Rangle was busted and censured for bigtime ethical violations and his constituents reelected him in a landslide the following election.

I guess our "best Government on Earth" means that we don't need to resign when disgraced.
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I think the most "damning" things here were the fact that he lied about it in Parliament, and the recorded calls where he threatened a war on newspaper. But yeah...lol

He didn't have many friends anyway.
 
W

Winnie the Pimp

Member
The media REALLY took it to him...

He might have fucked up a lot of things, but so did most of the other politicians as well, they are just lucky that they did not fall victim to a similar hate campaign/witch hunt
 
A

Alpha-Bromega

Member
BigDug13 said:
So this president accepted favors like discounts on things and he resigns? I don't really understand what that's like. Most of our political parties have accepted lower mortgages and other favors all the time.

Most of our politicians don't resign unless it's a sex scandal. Representative Rangle was busted and censured for bigtime ethical violations and his constituents reelected him in a landslide the following election.

I guess our "best Government on Earth" means that we don't need to resign when disgraced.
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there's a bit more to it than that. he did fairly shady things with his position and then continued to lie about it and use his position that he manipulated as a shield against prosecution. He wasn't Iran Contra, but the Germans do hold their presidents to a higher standard i guess..
 
M

MrHicks

Banned
WTF is the point of ceremonial roles like that
dude is probably payed a very good wage + other benefits

but hes purely ceremonial?
such waste
 
B

Benjamin1981

Member
He should not have fucked with the Bild Zeitung. The media would have propably let it go if he had not done that. But after that call the media dug up every little thing that might potentially hurt him.
 
F

Fritz

Member
I believe he could have survived the "Bild" call. But things turned sour when he so super blatantly lied about the hotel stuff, telling the public he payed the "donor" back in cash. People aren't that stupid! Death blow was obviously the prosecution asking to lift his immunity. Over all the problems are ridiculous though, but we wouldn't be Germans if we would have let him get through with it. I'd demand a private jet for the president though (one of the accusations was that he let the flight company bump him from economy to business class, lol). I mean who are we?
 
S

Sickboy007

Member
Fritz said:
I believe he could have survived the "Bild" call. But things turned sour when he so super blatantly lied about the hotel stuff, telling the public he payed the "donor" back in cash. People aren't that stupid! Death blow was obviously the prosecution asking to lift his immunity. Over all the problems are ridiculous though, but we wouldn't be Germans if we would have let him get through with it. I'd demand a private jet for the president though (one of the accusations was that he let the flight company bump him from economy to business class, lol). I mean who are we?
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Indeed.

220px-Karolos_Papoulias_.jpg
 
WorriedCitizen

WorriedCitizen

Member
BigDug13 said:
So this president accepted favors like discounts on things and he resigns? I don't really understand what that's like. Most of our political parties have accepted lower mortgages and other favors all the time.
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The post of the German president is hold to higher standards of moral and integrity then other politicians because he's something like our king/queen. Can't tolerate someone in this position who is corrupt as fuck. He should have resigned months ago.
 
A

AshMcCool

Member
Winnie the Pimp said:
The media REALLY took it to him...

He might have fucked up a lot of things, but so did most of the other politicians as well, they are just lucky that they did not fall victim to a similar hate campaign/witch hunt
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Maybe. So what? Is this supposed to be some sort of excuse?
 
H

Hyuga

Banned
ElTopo said:
Yeah, I mean it's not like he lied to the public about his credit, it's not like he lied to a federal parliament about expenses of a private event, it's not as if he ever talked shit about previous presidents like Johannes Rau and demanded them to step down, it's not as if there's multiple accusations from public prosecutors (or former Porsche shareholders), it's not as if we should hold the president to the same standards as e.g. officials.

Oh wait...
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Yep, the media did their job, as I see.
 
B

Binabik15

Member
MrHicks said:
WTF is the point of ceremonial roles like that
dude is probably payed a very good wage + other benefits

but hes purely ceremonial?
such waste
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He might get his compensation of 200000€/year FOR LIFE. If he doesn't get it he'll have to life off a meager 7000€ a month for 2 years.

And he had to go after the way he completely mishandled this affair every step of the way and couldn't stop playing the crybaby victim card.

Karma, bitches, he made sure another politician that had to resign did NOT get his pension.
 
B

Bollocks

Member
Wtf is wrong with Germany, first Gutenberg now this and the former president also stepped down?
Might as well call it Corruptmany
 
P

Patrick Bateman

Member
Fritz said:
Awesome! I wonder if he is still up for it? Too bad we missed the opportunity of him speaking at the anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall.
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A couple of days ago he said he would do it, if he gets nominated consentaneous. That CDU and FDP nominate him now, is quite interesting.
 
F

Fritz

Member
Patrick Bateman said:
A couple of days ago he said he would do it, if he gets nominated consentaneous. That CDU and FDP nominate him now, is quite interesting.
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I mean politically he is actually closest to the CDU. The nomination of Wulff was such a failure on all levels. Only good he ever did was speaking up for the integration of the muslim communities and marrying an escort.
 
P

Patrick Bateman

Member
Jason Raize '75 - '04 said:
Is it a scandal because of what he did or because he was caught?
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Because he didn't admit it. His whole behaviour was dumb. He only admitted so much as what could be proofed. More and more facts came up, he blamed reporters and looked for mistakes by anybody else except by himself.

So it was a mixture of the stuff he did and how he handled the whole situation.
 
P

Patrick Bateman

Member
Fritz said:
I mean politically he is actually closest to the CDU. The nomination of Wulff was such a failure on all levels. Only good he ever did was speaking up for the integration of the muslim communities and marrying an escort.
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Wulff was the only one left after Merz, Koch and Stoiber who could have become dangerous in the CDU/CSU for Merkel as the next Kanzler-candidate so it was a predictable situation that she wanted to put him there.
 
F

Fritz

Member
Patrick Bateman said:
Wulff was the only one left after Merz, Koch and Stoiber who could have become dangerous in the CDU/CSU for Merkel as the next Kanzler-candidate so it was a predictable situation that she wanted to put him there.
Click to expand...

Gotta admit, that plan worked pretty excellent.
 
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