Posted on 02/17/2012 3:04:11 AM PST by wolf78
Following the announcement by prosecutors that they would seek to lift his immunity, German President Christian Wulff announced Friday morning he would resign as the country's head of state. The development follows weeks of reporting on allegations the president accepted favors during his tenure as governor of the state of Lower-Saxony. Chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed her "deep regret" over the resignation.
German President Christian Wulff resigned from office on Friday after prosecutors stated a day earlier they would seek to have parliament lift his immunity. Prosecutors wanted his immunity revoked so they could formally investigate allegations a film producer had paid for a vacation in a luxury hotel for Wulff while he was governor of the state of Lower Saxony.
(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...
Good riddance. What a joke that man was.
Why so Cartan?
Following the announcement by prosecutors that they would seek to lift his immunity... follows weeks of reporting on allegations the president accepted favors during his tenure as governor of the state of Lower-Saxony... Prosecutors wanted his immunity revoked so they could formally investigate allegations a film producer had paid for a vacation in a luxury hotel for Wulff while he was governor of the state of Lower Saxony.
When the previous president stepped down, for reasons that I do not understand to this day, Merkel had to find a new one, quickly. She chose Wulff; one of her cronies, a boring, centrist type who would do whatever she told him to. The socialists then made a very smart move: They nominated a man named Gauck for president. Gauck was a former pastor and anti-communist dissident from East Germany, who used to lead the agency that hoarded the former Stasi files, where he earned the nick name “Stasi hunter.” He is an intelligent man who can hold very good speeches (which he even writes himself), and everybody knew that Gauck was a much better candidate than Wulff (the only people who didn’t like him were leftists and communists). The socialists knew very well that Merkel would lose face if she changed her mind now and supported Gauck, so she had to stick to Wulff. Here, Wulff should have shown some greatness and just refuse to candidate. Unfortunately, he did not, and Merkel’s congressmen voted for Wulff, according to the party line, and he won just barely, in the third ballot (because quite a number of conservatives voted for Gauck instead). The whole affair made Merkel look bad, it was a big success for the socialists. If Wulff had refused to candidate and let Gauck become president, they would have turned it into a victory: Gauck is a good man, and the socialists did not really want an anti-communist like him to win, they just wanted to make Merkel look bad! Oh well.
When in office, if you ever heard anything from Wulff, it was something stupid. For example, when there was a great public debate about the failure of Islamic immigrants to assimilate into civilized society, Wulff lost the opportunity and proclaimed that Islam was “a part of Germany” and everything was just wonderful.
And during the last three months, he stumbled from one scandal to another. Apparently, he had a lot of “friends,” who just happened to be filthy rich and liked him so much that they just had to give him one present after another, like lending him half a million Euros for building a house, without interest, for example. He tried aggressively to hush it up, giving phone calls to chief editors of big tabloids, threatening them in an attempt to stop publication of the scandals, etc. He just looked pathetic in the end. The whole country is joking about him. He should have stepped down much earlier. Or better, never candidated in the first place.
crooked
In English, we use the verb “run” instead of “candidate”. Never saw the word “candidate” used as a verb until this comment.........
I think your english is fantastic. Wish I could speak German as well. Thanks for the insight.
Thanks, that was very helpful.
Never heard of him.
I was born and raised in Germany, but the only president I remember is Theodor Heuss. My parents voted for him
Yeah, he was. I was 8 years old when he was elected. I forgot about Ludwig Erhard
Unlikely. It's not a general vote. The president is elected by the Federal Convention.
I see, thank you for explaining.
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