THE EMBATTLED German president is facing increasing calls for his resignation, with opposition Social Democrats calling the head of state “permanently damaged”.
For a month, Christian Wulff has been caught up in a scandal involving a low-cost private home loan and his attempts to interfere with media reporting of the story.
Sigmar Gabriel, head of the Social Democratic Party, said: “The office is now damaged on a scale that’s hard to imagine.”
Mr Wulff’s allies in the ruling Christian Democratic Union still support the head of state in public.
A public television poll yesterday suggested nearly three-quarters of Germans believe the scandal has left Mr Wulff and the largely ceremonial presidential office damaged, but 50 per cent say he should serve his full term. Some 44 per cent say he should resign.
The scandal began in December when the Bild tabloid reported that before becoming president, Mr Wulff had received a low-interest loan from the wife of an industrialist friend to buy a home for himself and his second wife. At the time, Mr Wulff denied having any business relations with his friend, but declined to mention the loan.
Before the story appeared, Mr Wulff called Bild editor Kai Diekmann and left a voicemail threatening legal action if the story was published. Mr Wulff has since apologised for the call.
His televised promise to publish answers to more than 500 written questions from German media organisations was later reversed by his legal team, citing privacy grounds. That caused uproar among German media groups and the answers are now likely to be published next week after all.