German President Resigns

Christian Wulff has resigned Friday on his home loan case. A prosecutor called for his immunity to be lifted. This is certain a bad news for Chancellor Angela Merkel because she fought for Mr. Wulff to become the President. And he was a trusted ally of her. German media had marked the crisis first time ever in Germany after the war. The home load scandal started in December. The Bild newspaper published that Mr. Wulff received a low interest 500,000 euro loan (£417,000; $649,000) from the wife of a wealthy businessman in October 2008. Then after that when Mr. Wulff was asked that if he had any business relations with Egon Geerkens, the businessman he said no but he did not mention his dealings with Mr. Geerkens’s wife. He is also accused of forcing Bild not to break the story. The forcing was proved by a message on Bild chief editor Kai Diekmann's phone in which Mr. Wulff said that the story must not be published though Mr. Wulff has since apologized to Mr. Diekmann.

Mrs. Merkel said that she accepted his resignation with respect but also with regret. She also praised him by saying that he dedicated himself to the interests of Germany. But the consequence is that Germany’s political parties now have to seek a new candidate for president. And in the meantime Horst Seehofer of the Christian Social Union (CSU) which is the Bavarian sister party of the Christian Democrat party (CDU) will be acting president.

The president’s role is largely ceremonial but Mrs. Markel has to go through this headache because her approval is higher among the German people. Germany is already going through with the eurozone debt crisis so she has to give her full concentration on that matter now.

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