Germany's top parties fight sleaze charges

[Ulhas Joglekar]

The Indian Express
Saturday, November 27, 1999
Germany's top parties fight sleaze charges
BERLIN: Sleaze clung to Germany's two major parties Friday as the ruling
Social Democrats (SPD) and their conservative rivals struggled to play down
separate allegations of graft in their ranks. Suspicions surrounding
donations to the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) during the rule
of ex-Chancellor Helmut Kohl grew after a former Kohl aide said the party
had created a web of secret accounts for its internal funds.
But his successor, Gerhard Schroeder, was not spared as one of the SPD's top
regional leaders, Lower Saxony state premier Gerhard Glogowski, announced he
had resigned after being accused of accepting favors from local companies.
The scandals cast a new light on two state elections next spring, which
analysts see as critical to the survival of Schroeder's 13-month-old
center-left coalition. Heiner Geissler, general secretary of Kohl's CDU
until 1989, confirmed a newspaper report alleging the CDU had set up a web
of secret trustee accounts in which donations were deposited.
The report in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung said public investigators unearthed
the accounts during a probe into a million-mark donation to the party by an
arms dealer in 1991 after the Kohl government approved a major export of
tanks to Saudi Arabia. ``Yes, in essence, what is there is correct,''
Geissler told WDR Radio of the article in the Munich-based paper.
Kohl Denies Knowledge Of Donation
Geissler, a former star of the German right whose career was curtailed in
the 1990s after he led a rebellion against Kohl's leadership, said he was
aware that other accounts existed apart from the official one used by the
national party. ``I always believed that was wrong and it must be cleared
up,'' he said. State prosecutors handling the investigation declined to
comment on the report but made clear that Kohl was not a target of their
probe.
Kohl, now a member of parliament, has denied the donation was in any way
linked to his government's decision earlier in 1991 to allow the export of
36 tanks to Saudi Arabia after the outbreak of the Gulf War. Current CDU
general secretary Angela Merkel said she would make no comment on Geissler's
remarks, saying only: ``I hope Mr. Geissler knows what he is saying.''
Coalition politicians have called for a parliamentary inquiry to be launched
early next year -- just ahead of a poll in the northern state of
Schleswig-Holstein in February and in North Rhine-Westphalia, an SPD
heartland, three months later.
Two Key Tests For Schroeder
The elections in the two Social Democrat strongholds are already being
viewed as tests for the Schroeder government, which has slumped in polls
following voter anger at state spending cuts and his coalition's generally
chaotic image. Some observers have suggested that if his party does badly,
Schroeder could face a leadership threat within the SPD which in turn might
trigger an early general election.
The resignation of Glogowski, while only directly involving a regional arm
of the SPD, could neutralize any gain in support for the SPD following the
CDU's woes. Glogowski -- who succeeded Schroeder at the head of the Lower
Saxony government -- told reporters in Hanover he had resigned after
questions about who paid for a trip he took with his wife last year to Egypt
and who footed the bill for his wedding reception.
Glogowski's position appeared threatened earlier this week after he
acknowledged he may not have kept a proper distance in his dealings with
local firms. Earlier Friday, newspapers reported he had admitted covering
the costs only after they provoked a public controversy. Reuters report.
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