GERMANY: The German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schröder, has warned he will take a tough line against Social Democrat (SPD) party members implicated in a new political fund-raising scandal.
Senior Schröder aides spent the weekend in Cologne working to prevent a developing scandal of undeclared donations and alleged bribes in the local SPD branch from reaching Berlin six months ahead of elections.
"The Cologne affair is a local matter. Those responsible have gone or will be removed from the party, that is something everyone can be sure of," said Mr Schröder yesterday.
The scandal began when a former high-ranking SPD official in Cologne admitted receiving DM511,000 (€205,000) in illegal undeclared donations between 1994 and 1999.
State prosecutors raided SPD offices in Cologne last week for evidence of allegations that a local waste management company paid party officials over €15 million in bribes to build an incineration plant in the western state of North-Rhine Westphalia. What began as a local scandal took on national significance this weekend after the SPD denied reports that several of the party's Cologne deputies helped hide the donations.
The developing scandal could implicate a close Schröder aide, the SPD chairman, Mr Franz Münterfering.
