Germany's President Christian Wulff says he will not resign over his conduct in a home loan scandal. He has come under increasing pressure after it emerged he had threatened a newspaper with legal action if it published details about the controversial loan. In a recorded TV interview, Mr Wulff said the threat was a "serious mistake" for which he was sorry. When asked whether he had considered stepping down, he replied: "No."
Germany's President Christian Wulff says he will not resign over his conduct in a home loan scandal.
He has come under increasing pressure after it emerged he had threatened a newspaper with legal action if it published details about the controversial loan.
In a recorded TV interview, Mr Wulff said the threat was a "serious mistake" for which he was sorry.
When asked whether he had considered stepping down, he replied: "No."
Wulff is also a Christian Democrat with close ties to Merkel. The Free Democrats (FDP), the junior partners in Merkel's coalition, say it is up to the president to set the record straight. "I am confident he will succeed," FDP Secretary-General Patrick Döring said on Tuesday as quoted by Deutsche Welle. Wulff's election in June 2010 was already a humiliation for Merkel. The post of president is largely ceremonial in Germany and the head of state is elected by parliament. However, it took three rounds of voting to elect Wulff, and in the first round 44 members of Merkel's party voted against him in a major blow to her leadership. Wulff's predecessor, Horst Köhler, unexpectedly resigned on 31 May 2010 following a 'misplaced comment' he made about German military action abroad. This is not the first time that Wulff tried to suppress a media report in his presidential capacity, German media reported. In June 2011, Wulff is said to have tried to make the Welt am Sonntag newspaper drop a story about his half-sister. The Financial Times Deutschland said Wulff is not up to the job of German president and called for him to resign.
Wulff is also a Christian Democrat with close ties to Merkel.
The Free Democrats (FDP), the junior partners in Merkel's coalition, say it is up to the president to set the record straight. "I am confident he will succeed," FDP Secretary-General Patrick Döring said on Tuesday as quoted by Deutsche Welle.
Wulff's election in June 2010 was already a humiliation for Merkel. The post of president is largely ceremonial in Germany and the head of state is elected by parliament. However, it took three rounds of voting to elect Wulff, and in the first round 44 members of Merkel's party voted against him in a major blow to her leadership.
Wulff's predecessor, Horst Köhler, unexpectedly resigned on 31 May 2010 following a 'misplaced comment' he made about German military action abroad.
This is not the first time that Wulff tried to suppress a media report in his presidential capacity, German media reported. In June 2011, Wulff is said to have tried to make the Welt am Sonntag newspaper drop a story about his half-sister.
The Financial Times Deutschland said Wulff is not up to the job of German president and called for him to resign.
Wulff did apologize again, on tonight's nation-wide primetime broadcast (which i did not see), but then claimed he was just trying to protect his family, as anyone would do. Against the infernal media. Classic victimhood attempt. He even said he was just trying to buy some time for further discussion with his calls to the media chiefs.
BILD has already publicly called bullshit. Spiegel documented the victimhood story, and their commentator thinks he'll probably survive, giving us more banality in a banal situation from a banal president.
i suppose it depends on the opposition. I'd say what i think is going on, but i'm just not expert enough in bundespolitik to make a call. "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
I can't believe such blatant disrespect for the office is allowed to continue, showing once again, that real power is wielded by small minds. "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL2T30O2NQs&feature=player_embedded
An interesting question is why the press (Springer's Bild at that) is blurting out the affair just now.
And a very interesting question, why now? Who's to gain, what? "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
Then again, this is the SPD we're talking about.
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
To Gabriel's credit, now I am reading that he is attacking again, and in fact attacking Merkel (saying that after Wulff's second unsatisfactory television address, this is a Causa Merkel rather than a Causa Wulff). *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Here's how to embed a Youtube vid on ET: type this:
((youtube dL2T30O2NQs))
The code that identifies each video is the sequence after "v=". Ignore any "&...." whatever that may follow.
More on video embedding macros in the User Guide.
You know you're in trouble when the Bildzeitung acts classier than you do. The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman
That be would be quite unusual.
(Besides, always the pessimist, I'm not so sure about that. Merkel's poll numbers rose in recent months, ZDF saw her on top last month. As for parties, while the FDP is stable below the 5% limit, I'd never discount the 'help' of CDU voters – while some voters see the Pirates melting away. 2013 is too far away to assume that there won't be a conservative comeback, IMHO. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
How did it happen? How did the scandal originally break out? Is it possible that it was really a minor issue stupendously mismanaged by Wulff himself? tens of millions of people stand to see their lives ruined because the bureaucrats at the ECB don't understand introductory economics -- Dean Baker
You mean the story about the phone threats? But when and how did the loan story become a scandal? tens of millions of people stand to see their lives ruined because the bureaucrats at the ECB don't understand introductory economics -- Dean Baker
The mass-circulation Bild newspaper alleged that Wulff had not given the whole truth in a response to a parliamentary question put to him in 2010, when he was still governor of the northern state of Lower Saxony, about whether he had business ties with the businessman Egon Geerkens. The report said Wulff's office had declared at the time that there were no business links with Geerkens. The question had been submitted by two regional members of parliament with the opposition Green Party. According to Bild, however, Wulff and his wife Bettina had received a loan of €500,000 ($660,000) from Geerkens' wife Edith in order to buy a home.
The report said Wulff's office had declared at the time that there were no business links with Geerkens. The question had been submitted by two regional members of parliament with the opposition Green Party.
According to Bild, however, Wulff and his wife Bettina had received a loan of €500,000 ($660,000) from Geerkens' wife Edith in order to buy a home.
Why did this story surface now, rather than back in 2010?
Yes. Why oh why?
Der Bundespräsident steht nach BILD vorliegenden Dokumenten im Verdacht, am 18. Februar 2010 den Landtag in Hannover getäuscht zu haben
Or do you talk about yet another bank I missed?
What is a Land doing operating a private banking business, by the way? Is that in the public interest? tens of millions of people stand to see their lives ruined because the bureaucrats at the ECB don't understand introductory economics -- Dean Baker
Now the justification of any Landesbank is of course the servicing of regional business. Sprakassen do retail and small business and anything to big for them and in the state is the business of the Landesbank.
* I am not making this up!
But Wulff of course isn't high net worth. So he would not get this kind of loan ( a revolving money market loan).
To learn more ET should send me on a longer fact finding mission to Osnabrück.
And since Geerkens is retired and living in Switzerland since 2003 he shouldn't be part of these delegations, no longer being a part of the regional business scene.
This rather looks like a sort of father-figure relationship. It would be weird enough if Wulff took his retired parents with him on state trips. tens of millions of people stand to see their lives ruined because the bureaucrats at the ECB don't understand introductory economics -- Dean Baker
Which, if Wikipedia is reliable, was the time when his mother developed multiple sclerosis and he had to take care of his siblings, given that the parents had been separated since he was two.
Gah, I'm getting to find our more details of Wulff's personal life than I should care to know... tens of millions of people stand to see their lives ruined because the bureaucrats at the ECB don't understand introductory economics -- Dean Baker
Bild made public that Wulff had business relations with Mrs Geerkens. Wulff defended himself that he had not lied to parliament, which very strictly speaking may even be true. It's not the response to rescue his credibility, though.
...Wulff was asked in Parliament (of Niedersachsen) if he had a business relation with Mr Geerkens. Answer: no.
The opposition (in Niedersachsen) could have demanded an enquiry, but didn't, because they are as corrupt. (Sigmar Gabriel comes from Nds. too, btw.). In Berlin they could try to impeach Wulff. They won't.
It's the berlusconisation of our political sphere.
Guttenberg had completely lost touch with reality. He kept saying that he had just forgotten some quotes, although he had not forgotten to germanise the spelling of Swiss quotes, and it was too many quotes anyway. The heap of evidence grew every day, but Guttenberg was clinging to his story. Weird. Pathological, probably. I hasten to add that it is NOT the same as hearing voices coming out of the cupboard, BUT... Hell, the German defence minister with a psychiatric problem... That's why he had to go, Migeru.
Wulff hopes for our short memories, and he knows probably that the opposition doesn't want too much poking in the dirt either. He is probably sane, and he has only to shake some hands and to sign some things anyway. And speeches, which will be a problem.
Sentimental, provincial and unapologetic - that's how the President has presented himself to his people. In his audacity, he recalls Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg. But at least Wulff confirmed before millions of viewers: The Chancellor has chosen the wrong guy.
Other FTD headlines: BILD Contradicts Wulff The First President Who Pardons Himself
wow, Merkel can't win here. Keep him, she looks bad. Can him, she looks bad. Why can't the opposition win? (Because they're nearly as bad???) "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
Why should she have a problem now? SHe can allow the Bundestag to appoint whoever they want to the post since there are no more political opponents she needs to retire. tens of millions of people stand to see their lives ruined because the bureaucrats at the ECB don't understand introductory economics -- Dean Baker
Now legally speaking any member of the federal assembly could propose a candidate.
Precisely my point. She could wash her hands of the whole thing with some lofty bullshit along the lines of "the executive branch cannot interfere in the constitutional prerogatives of the legislative branch" and "the office of President must be nonpartisan". tens of millions of people stand to see their lives ruined because the bureaucrats at the ECB don't understand introductory economics -- Dean Baker
She can either
a) choose a CDU candidate
b) concur to a FDP or CSU candidate
c) compromise with SPD and Greens on a common candidate
option c) would be the best in my opinion. a la "Joschka Fischer was today elected as the first green President of the federal republic as a common candidate of CDU/CSU(FDP/SPD/Greens"
Merkel's problem is that presidents of her choice tend to be embarassing figures. The opposition has a problem, because their candidate was Gauck, the ultra-neoliberal, which is embarassing for them. On the other hand they can't name a different candidate: the Seeheimer Kreis wouldn't like that. The opposition does not want this reckoning just now.
No, no, she would step down as Chancellor, tolet someone else preside over a German recession and a blowup of the Eurozone while she makes nice speeches about Swabian housewife morality. tens of millions of people stand to see their lives ruined because the bureaucrats at the ECB don't understand introductory economics -- Dean Baker
In a television appearance on Wednesday, German President Christian Wulff sought to end a growing scandal involving his personal loans and treatment of the media. He showed a bit of regret, but also tried to portray himself as a victim of the nasty press. It was brazen, but also smart. It is very possible he will survive the affair.
"I wouldn't want to be a president in a country where a person can no longer borrow money from friends," the president said on Wednesday night, refering to the controversy about his private loan. It almost made one want to respond: Who wants to be the citizen of a country in which the president makes such statements on television? ... The political calculations by Merkel and her allies are absolutely mediocre, for which they have the perfect president. Wulff is determined to sit out the affair. That should be apparent to anyone.
...
The political calculations by Merkel and her allies are absolutely mediocre, for which they have the perfect president. Wulff is determined to sit out the affair. That should be apparent to anyone.
