The German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, has accused his predecessor, Dr Helmut Kohl, of treating the law with contempt in refusing to name anonymous donors who secretly funded the Christian Democrats during Dr Kohl's 16 years in power. Speaking to the mass-circulation Bild am Sonntag yesterday, Mr Schroder expressed outrage at Dr Kohl's insistence that he will not break his personal word by identifying donors.
"His comment that personal ties were more important to him than legal formalities is particularly dangerous. What he is referring to here is the law of the land. That is not acceptable in a democracy - certainly not for a chancellor - because they are his laws that must apply to him above all. Otherwise you can't expect the people to obey laws," Mr Schroder said.
Dr Kohl claims to have received hundreds of letters every day last week, most of them supporting his decision to keep the donors' names secret and readers of the popular newspaper Bild voted overwhelmingly in support of Dr Kohl in a recent poll. "I am delighted by this result. It strengthens me in my conviction that I will not break my word," he said.
Dr Kohl has admitted accepting almost u £1 million in anonymous donations between 1993 and 1997 and channelling the money through a network of secret accounts. There is no suggestion that the former chancellor benefited personally from any donations but he could face charges of embezzling or money laundering because of possible irregularities in the use of the accounts.
German political parties are obliged to identify donors of sums over DM20,000 u (£8,000) and the Christian Democrats could be fined heavily for breaching the rules.
Dr Kohl has consistently denied that his government's decisions were influenced by the secret donations but prosecutors are investigating links between the secret accounts and bribes paid when the French oil company Elf Aquitaine bought an east German oil refinery shortly after German unification.
Files relating to the Elf Aquitaine affair have disappeared from the chancellery and Mr Schroder has launched an internal inquiry to establish who removed them.
