German President Wulff quits over corruption claims
18 Feb BBC
German President Christian Wulff has announced his resignation, after
prosecutors called for his immunity to be lifted.
An ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, Mr Wulff, 52, stepped down over
corruption claims involving a dubious home loan. He denies any
wrongdoing.
Mrs Merkel cancelled a visit to Italy on Friday to deal with the
crisis, and said she regretted that he had quit.
German media say the crisis is unprecedented in post-war Germany.
Mrs Merkel had fought to get Mr Wulff, from her centre-right
Christian Democrat party (CDU), appointed as president. He had been in
the job for less than two years.
She said she accepted his resignation “with respect but also with
regret”.
“He dedicated himself to the interests of Germany,” she said in a
brief statement at 10:30 GMT, shortly after his announcement on Friday.
She said Mr Wulff was convinced he had “acted legally correctly” but
was “stepping back from the office, from service to our people”.
Germany’s political parties will now seek to agree on a new candidate
for president, she said.
In the interim, Horst Seehofer of the Christian Social Union (CSU),
the Bavarian sister party of the CDU, will be acting president.
The president’s role is largely ceremonial, to serve as a moral
authority for the nation.
The BBC’s Berlin correspondent Stephen Evans says the affair is just
a headache for Mrs Merkel, whose approval rating is high among the
German people.
However, she does not need any new problems as Germany wrestles with
the eurozone debt crisis, our correspondent adds.
“The developments of the past few days and weeks have shown that [the
German people’s] trust and thus my effectiveness have been seriously
damaged,” Mr Wulff said in a brief statement.
“For this reason it is no longer possible for me to exercise the
office of president at home and abroad as required.”
The scandal surrounding Mr Wulff escalated in December.
At the centre of the row is the story - first published by the Bild
newspaper - that Mr Wulff received a low interest 500,000 euro loan
(£417,000; $649,000) from the wife of a wealthy businessman in October
2008. Mr Wulff, who previously was premier of Lower Saxony, was later
asked in the state’s parliament if he had had business relations with
the businessman, Egon Geerkens, and said he had not, making no mention
of his dealings with Mr Geerkens’s wife. The president was also heavily
criticised for trying to force Bild not to break the story in the first
place.
It has emerged that he left an angry message on Bild chief editor Kai
Diekmann’s phone, saying the story must not be published.
Mr Wulff has since apologised to Mr Diekmann.
There were also corruption allegations against Mr Wulff, involving
receiving political favours and free holidays from business executives.
On Thursday, prosecutors in Hanover, capital of Lower Saxony, said there
were “enough actual indications” that the president had acted
improperly.
“Therefore they have asked the president of the German Bundestag [the
lower house] to lift the president’s immunity.”
The move is formally required to start proceedings against Mr Wulff,
although this does not mean necessarily that he will be charged. |