Germany's opposition Christian Democrats (CDU) said yesterday that they had discovered significant new information about secret accounts used for illegal funds during the leadership of the former chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl.
But they declined to make public the new revelations, which emerged after party officials questioned a former CDU financial adviser, Mr Horst Weyrauch, for six hours yesterday.
German media reports claim that Mr Weyrauch, a long-time Kohl associate, confirmed that the federal organisation of the CDU used secret accounts in Switzerland and Liechtenstein to fund election campaigns illegally.
Until now, the CDU has claimed that the use of secret accounts in Germany's neighbouring tax havens was confined to the party's organisation in the southern state of Hesse.
The former interior minister, Mr Manfred Kanther, resigned his parliamentary seat last month after he admitted channelling millions of pounds through Swiss accounts during the final years of Dr Kohl's government.
Mr Weyrauch is understood to have confirmed the account given by the CDU leader, Dr Wolfgang Schauble, of contacts with a fugitive arms dealer in connection with an illegal donation of £40,000.
Mr Bernhard Vogel, the CDU Prime Minister of the eastern state of Thuringia, yesterday denied that he and other conservative leaders were plotting to overthrow Dr Schauble.
"The party's board and presidium, including myself, have already unequivocally backed Wolfgang Schauble.
"That is still valid now. Of course we touched on the current situation. The conclusion was that we all three stand behind Wolfgang Schauble," he added.
According to a German television report, Mr Weyrauch has warned that, once his revelations become public, the CDU's troubles will become even worse.
"The republic is shaking. If they go into that, then all Europe is going to shake," he said.
