Kohl Resigns Party Post in German Flap

BERLIN — Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl resigned Tuesday as honorary chairman of the Christian Democratic Union after the conservatives he led for a quarter of a century condemned him for a financing scandal that has forever tainted the legendary statesman’s legacy and plunged the party into crisis.

After a six-hour emergency meeting of the CDU’s executive committee, the party members demanded that Kohl step down or disclose the sources of more than $1 million in illegal political contributions he admits to having accepted during his 16 years as chancellor.

That ultimatum prompted the 69-year-old Kohl, who is credited with reuniting Germany and shaping the European Union, to leave the helm of a party he has served all his adult life.

“The decision to leave as honorary chairman was not easy for me. I have belonged to the Christian Democratic Union for 50 years. It is my political homeland,” Kohl said in a written announcement of his resignation. Kohl acquired the purely ceremonial title of honorary chairman after losing the chancellorship in 1998.

There was no immediate word as to whether Kohl would also give up his seat in the Bundestag, the lower house of Parliament, which is dominated by the left-of-center governing coalition of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democrats and the environmentalist Greens. But with so many voices of longtime allies now raised against him, it seems unlikely that Kohl will submit to the public humiliation of sitting among fellow legislators who have made him an outcast.

Kohl is already under investigation by federal prosecutors on accusations of criminal wrongdoing, and the Bundestag has also launched a formal inquiry into his suspect financial dealings.

The party’s decision to turn its guns against Kohl appeared to give his successor as CDU leader, Wolfgang Schaeuble, a reprieve from calls that he step down after his own admission of having accepted donations into secret bank accounts.

Schaeuble offered his resignation at the start of the hastily called meeting of the 18-member executive committee but was told, “If you go, we all go,” the embattled chairman told journalists after the session.

He described the plight of the CDU, accused of hiding at least $17 million in illegal donations over the past decade, as “the worst crisis in its history” but vowed to stay on and fight to restore the party’s reputation.

Foes Label Actions Not Good Enough

Political adversaries immediately dismissed the CDU actions as insufficient. Schroeder, who has mostly refrained from scoring political points against Kohl during the former chancellor’s fall from glory, made his most damning comments to date in suggesting that the CDU scandal is hurting Germany’s democratic reputation.

“The decisions taken by the CDU today have contributed neither to an explanation nor to self-purifying,” Schroeder told reporters. “The government wants efforts undertaken to ensure the image of the federal republic abroad is not damaged.”

Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer angrily told conservative opponents that they are compromising Germany’s credibility as a reliable partner in agreements and negotiations.

And the head of the liberal Free Democratic Party, Wolfgang Gerhardt, warned that the scandal and the damage it is inflicting on Germany will only accelerate until the CDU leadership makes a full disclosure.

Kohl has refused to name the donors whose contributions he squirreled away in secret accounts in violation of party financing laws that require public disclosure of any gift of more than 20,000 marks, or about $10,350. Kohl has said he gave the party’s benefactors his “word of honor” that they would remain anonymous.

The CDU scandal, which began in November with arrest warrants for Kohl’s former party treasurer and a Bavarian arms dealer, has flared with each new revelation of slush-fund activity and each accusation that government decisions in the Kohl era were up for sale. The story has dominated German media for weeks and given rise to an unusually aggressive bout of investigative reporting here that has dug up case after case of suspect donations.

Vote Results in Hesse Called Into Question

Schroeder’s Social Democrats lost control of the upper house of Parliament a year ago after the CDU won elections in Hesse state, and recent reports that the conservatives there benefited from illegal funds from Swiss bank accounts have fueled demands for a new vote. Hesse is home to Germany’s banking and financial capital, Frankfurt.

On Tuesday, prosecutors raided the homes and offices of two key figures in the scandal in the state.

CDU officials in Hesse have come in for particularly scathing criticism for trying to mask the donations as bequests from the estates of grateful Holocaust survivors. One prominent Jewish community leader and CDU member, Frankfurt attorney Michael Friedmann, called the misuse of the Nazi victims’ memory “disgusting.”

Although Schaeuble escaped immediate ouster, he remains under a cloud of suspicion that is expected to gather force as the party’s fortunes tumble in the run-up to another important state election next month.

Only two months ago, CDU Deputy Chairman Volker Ruehe was considered a shoo-in for the post of governor in Schleswig-Holstein in the Feb. 27 balloting. But the party’s 15-point lead has been erased, and the Social Democrats are now predicted to win easily.

The CDU leadership’s decision to keep Schaeuble at the helm probably reflects a sense of resignation throughout the party that most prominent members were at least aware of the shady financing habits.