Germany's former chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, admitted yesterday that he channelled donations to his Christian Democrats (CDU) through a system of secret accounts, but denied that he had been bribed during his years in office.
Speaking after a meeting of the party leadership in Berlin, Dr Kohl said he regarded the use of such accounts as justifiable, but acknowledged that they may have been in breach of regulations covering party funding.
"I regret if this led to a lack of transparency and control and may have been in contravention of party financing rules. This was not my intention and I wanted, above all, to serve my party," he said.
Dr Kohl came under growing pressure to make a public statement after Mr Heiner Geissler, a former general secretary of the CDU, claimed that, when he objected to the use of secret accounts for anonymous donations, the former chancellor told him to mind his own business.
"I told Kohl he had to run all expenditure through the normal CDU party budget. But he rejected that and said it was outside my authority. We had loud arguments about it, but they were futile. A short time later I was out of my job," he said.
Dr Kohl sacked Mr Geissler in 1989 when he discovered that the former general secretary was plotting against him, and the two men have remained on bad terms ever since.
The existence of the secret accounts came to light last week when prosecutors investigating a DM1 million gift to the CDU from an arms dealer seized records from one of the party's accountants. Dr Kohl insists that he knew nothing about the DM1 million donation, which was channelled through a secret account and appears to have been linked to a decision to approve a lucrative arms sale to Saudi Arabia.
Although most commentators believe the former chancellor when he says he knew nothing of the donation, the party's former treasurer, Mr Walther Leisler Kiep, claims that Dr Kohl took a close interest in all donations.
"I can prove that the former CDU chairman was very interested in the origin of donations much smaller than DM1 million," he said.
Dr Kohl's successor as party leader, Mr Wolfgang Schauble, said that all secret accounts were closed down last December, shortly after he took over the leadership.
"Helmut Kohl led the party in a patriarchal way. He took care of and really cared about everyone. This patriarchal style meant that the rules were not adhered to exactly the way we might want today," he said.
There is no suggestion that Dr Kohl benefited personally from any contribution to CDU funds, and the former chancellor yesterday rejected any suggestion that his government's decisions were for sale.
"Everyone who knows me knows that I saw myself under an obligation to nothing other than the interests of our country and that's how I still see myself," he said.
Reuters adds: Karl Hugo Pruys, editor of a 1996 biography of Dr Kohl, has insisted the current affair will not overshadow the former chancellor's historical contribution.
"In historical terms, I think Kohl is one of the three great chancellors along with [Konrad] Adenauer and [Willy] Brandt as those who brought about German unity," he said.
