After Germany's last Federal President Horst Köhler resigned after making certain unconstitutional comments about the role of Germany's military, his successor Christian Wulff is currently setting himself up for a similar resignation.
Wulff's follies started when he was Minister-President of Lower Saxony - before being elected to his current post. Wulff took out a private interest-less loan from a friend to the tune of half a million Euro two years ago. As required for his post back then, he was asked to disclose any financial or similar relationships to private business at the time, and he lied about this particular loan. In addition the loan itself may have been illegal for him to take, since the zero interest conditions effectively amounted to a five-figure bribe.
After being asked about it, he secretly refinanced that loan last month by switching over to a regular bank giving him rather favorable conditions, but the damage was already done.
Last month, reporters unearthed the story, publicizing the story widely around the German press. German tabloid Bild owned by the conservative Axel Springer publishing house was in particular at the forefront of this press offensive.
The real problem for Wulff started when Bild - being courtious to a fellow conservative - tried to have a particularly exposing article they were about to publish cleared by the president first. Wulff reacted to the article announcement with two calls: one to the author - Bild's chief editor Diekmann - telling him that if that if the article was published life would become rather uncomfortable for Diekmann; and a second one, afterwards, to Springer's CEO Mathias Döpfner, in which he threatened "war" between the Presidential Office and the publishing house for the rest of his term.
Obviously can't have that:
Protesters cry 'Wulff must go!' | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 07.01.2012
I'm giving him one month. Tops.
There are already discussion on who might succeed him. Names currently being called are former German and UN Environmental Minister/USG Klaus Töpfer and Norbert Lammert, the current Bundestag president and nominally Wulff's vice president.
The government coalition only has a very slim majority of about 623 to 617 seats in the presidential electoral council right now, and therefore would be looking for a candidate explicitly acceptable for the opposition SPD. The SPD itself is looking at Joachim Gauck as a possible candidate.
Wulff's follies started when he was Minister-President of Lower Saxony - before being elected to his current post. Wulff took out a private interest-less loan from a friend to the tune of half a million Euro two years ago. As required for his post back then, he was asked to disclose any financial or similar relationships to private business at the time, and he lied about this particular loan. In addition the loan itself may have been illegal for him to take, since the zero interest conditions effectively amounted to a five-figure bribe.
After being asked about it, he secretly refinanced that loan last month by switching over to a regular bank giving him rather favorable conditions, but the damage was already done.
Last month, reporters unearthed the story, publicizing the story widely around the German press. German tabloid Bild owned by the conservative Axel Springer publishing house was in particular at the forefront of this press offensive.
The real problem for Wulff started when Bild - being courtious to a fellow conservative - tried to have a particularly exposing article they were about to publish cleared by the president first. Wulff reacted to the article announcement with two calls: one to the author - Bild's chief editor Diekmann - telling him that if that if the article was published life would become rather uncomfortable for Diekmann; and a second one, afterwards, to Springer's CEO Mathias Döpfner, in which he threatened "war" between the Presidential Office and the publishing house for the rest of his term.
Obviously can't have that:
Protesters cry 'Wulff must go!' | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 07.01.2012
[...] Protesters gathered outside the official residence of German President Christian Wulff on Saturday, shouting "Wulff must go!" and waving shoes above their heads in a sign of disrespect common in the Arabic world.
Police said the demonstration, dubbed "Shoe for you, Mr President" - after the insult that gained international recognition three years ago when an Iraqi journalist threw his shoe at then US President George W. Bush - attracted about 450 people outside the Bellevue palace in Berlin. [...]
Police said the demonstration, dubbed "Shoe for you, Mr President" - after the insult that gained international recognition three years ago when an Iraqi journalist threw his shoe at then US President George W. Bush - attracted about 450 people outside the Bellevue palace in Berlin. [...]
There are already discussion on who might succeed him. Names currently being called are former German and UN Environmental Minister/USG Klaus Töpfer and Norbert Lammert, the current Bundestag president and nominally Wulff's vice president.
The government coalition only has a very slim majority of about 623 to 617 seats in the presidential electoral council right now, and therefore would be looking for a candidate explicitly acceptable for the opposition SPD. The SPD itself is looking at Joachim Gauck as a possible candidate.
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