Germany's parliament yesterday launched an official inquiry into a network of secret accounts used by former chancellor Dr Helmut Kohl to channel funds to his Christian Democrats (CDU). The current party leader, Dr Wolfgang Schauble, backed the decision to investigate the scandal, which threatens to undermine Dr Kohl's political legacy.
"The suspicion that decisions of a government were influenced by money payments is such a serious allegation that it is in the interests of our democracy to clear this up as quickly as possible," Dr Schauble said.
The inquiry will focus on a DM1 million donation to the CDU in 1991 by a Bavarian arms dealer, which may have been linked to the approval by Dr Kohl's government of a lucrative arms deal with Saudi Arabia.
Dr Kohl admitted this week he had used secret accounts to channel funds to local party organisations and acknowledged that the practice might have been in breach of party funding rules.
The scandal is a political godsend to the Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, who faces a special party conference of his Social Democrats (SPD) in Berlin next week. Social Democrats and Greens want the inquiry to establish whether secret gifts to Dr Kohl's party influenced government decisions, a charge the former chancellor denies.
"We want to know what happened to the money. Where did it go? What was it used for? Why was the money donated? Was it meant to make Helmut Kohl happy or was it meant to influence decisions?" said SPD deputy Mr Frank Hoffmann.
As the questions surrounding Dr Kohl's secret accounts multiply, Dr Schauble has been distancing himself subtly from his predecessor.
Dr Kohl was not present at yesterday's Bundestag debate on the controversy and he has refused to elaborate on his brief statement this week. The parliament wants the CDU to release its accountants from their confidentiality obligation, so that the inquiry can be told how much money went through Dr Kohl's accounts, where it came from and to what purpose it was put.
German political parties are required to publish the names of donors who give more than DM20,000 in a year and cannot accept money from outside the country. The scandal has encouraged some commentators, including another former chancellor, Mr Helmut Schmidt, to call for a ban on all corporate donations to political parties.
