Blow for Merkel as scandal-hit president resigns

Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday she would seek a cross-party candidate after the resignation of Germany’s scandal-hit president dealt her a blow as she battles to lead Europe out of a crisis.
Merkel announced talks with all major political parties to find a consensus candidate to replace Christian Wulff, who earlier stepped down after prosecutors demanded the lifting of his immunity from prosecution.
“We want to hold talks with the aim of being able to propose a joint candidate for the next president of the Federal Republic of Germany,” Merkel told reporters in a sombre two-minute statement.
She had “great respect” but also “deep regret” over Wulff’s decision to step down in the wake of a series of scandals, she said, adding he had served Germany “with great energy” at home and abroad.
Prosecutors in Lower Saxony state where Wulff was formerly premier said late Thursday they had asked parliament to lift his immunity in order to investigate allegations that he abused his position.
Merkel’s hand-picked choice for head of state, a fellow member of the conservative Christian Democratic party, has faced almost daily media allegations that he accepted favours when he was premier of Lower Saxony.
It is the second time in two years that Germany’s president — who largely plays a ceremonial role but who also acts as a moral arbiter — has quit before the end of his term.
Wulff, 52, said earlier in a brief but dramatic televised statement from the president’s sumptuous Bellevue palace that he was stepping down “to free up the way quickly for a successor”.
Germany needs “a president that enjoys the trust of not only a majority, but a broad majority of citizens” he said, saying recent events had shown “this trust and therefore my effectiveness have been damaged”.
“For this reason, it is no longer possible to carry out the office of president both domestically and abroad the way it needs to be done,” he said.
“I have made mistakes, but I was always honest,” he said.
Merkel, who now must juggle the race to replace him with efforts to help steer Greece away from bankruptcy, said she would first speak to the parties that make up Germany’s coalition government.
According to coalition sources contacted by AFP, such a meeting of her own conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), its Bavarian CSU sister party and the pro-business Free Democrats, could take place as early as Saturday.
She would then open negotiations with the opposition Social Democrats (SPD) and the ecologist Greens to find a unity candidate, a move immediately welcomed by SPD general secretary Andrea Nahles.
Analysts saw Wulff’s resignation as a political blow for Merkel.
“All in all, Christian Wulff’s resignation should hardly have any impact on the current negotiations of the second Greek bailout package,” Carsten Brzeski, senior economist at ING bank said.
“However, domestic political pressure on Angela Merkel could increase again and will not make her life any easier,” he added.
Steven Bastos, political scientist from the Genshagen Foundation, said Wulff’s departure had the potential to complicate the debate in Germany over efforts to agree a Greek bailout.
“It’s clearly a political defeat for Merkel which weakens her politically and even more because she has supported him for so long,” he said.
Wulff had been under intense media scrutiny for two months after mass circulation Bild reported he had failed to declare a 500,000-euro ($660,000) home loan secured at an advantageous rate while Lower Saxony premier.
Almost daily claims followed culminating late Thursday in prosecutors in the northern German state asking parliament to lift his immunity to probe allegations he had enjoyed favours from a film producer friend.
Wulff also became embroiled in a public spat with Bild, the most-read paper in Europe, after leaving a furious voicemail on the chief editor’s phone and claims he tried to gag publication of the home loan story.
Wulff’s predecessor Horst Koehler abruptly resigned in 2010 over remarks appearing to justify the use of German military power to protect the country’s economic interests.