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| © Bild: 2012 DPA/ Bildfunk/ Robert Schlesinger |
It is a big day in Germany.
And it is not because the FC Bayern München won a match against Dortmund.
It is because our Federal President Christian Wulff resigned. Well of course the “Wulff-Affair” started because of money…
“Bild”, a German yellow press newspaper, became curious when Wulff bought a new house and there was no name registered in the cadastre. They tried to publish some of the facts and became even more curious when Wulff tried to deter them from doing it.
The Federal President has to unfold his income and spending to a governmental office. The office is also authorized to ask questions about relationships with businessmen.
After Wulff's panic reaction the state started to investigate and Wulff answered “No” when he was asked if he had a business relationship with one of his older friends who runs a big trading company. It turned out that Wulff did not deal with his friend Egon Geerkens but with his wife Edith Geerkens.
Wulff received a loan amounting to 500.000 €. The problem was that Egon Geerkens led the negotiations concerning the credit terms for his wife. The given interest rates were very low. In return Wulff took Egon Geerkens with him on several political trips where he had the chance to expand his network of business relationships.
After these facts became public Wulffs image was in danger because again “Bild” was eager to detect the whole story.
Shortly before Christmas he admitted the truth of the upcoming charges and shifted the 500.000 € loan to a bank. At that point 50% of the German citizens did not consider Wulff as a trustworthy person anymore.
“Bild” did not stop their enquiry at this point because again the loan conditions where far better than any normal German citizen would receive. It turned out that the “BW-Bank” was one of the main financial contacts that Egon Geerkens held and that he again helped Wulff getting very low interest rates.
Along with the 500.000 € loan Wulff had to face allegations of trying to influence media. An unjustifiable holiday at a friend’s house did not help to improve his image either and last but not least he lied to the German nation.
In my opinion the Federal President must be a trustworthy and honest person who can not be influenced by anything else then by his or her own conscience. Considering that the Federal President is there to serve the nation his or her conscience should represent whatever is best for the country and not for him- or herself.
As a logical result of his wrong orientation and his dishonesty, today was Wulff’s last day as our Federal President.
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| (Wulff: "I fear I was not always linear in my doings..." Blue Man: "That means that he should have taken the money straight from Geerken and not loop way from his wife...") |
