GERMAN PRESIDENT Horst Köhler took the country by surprise and resigned yesterday in protest at being accused of justifying war to protect the country’s economic interests.
Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was “taken by surprise” by the move, one that creates yet another political headache for her at an inopportune time as she struggles on several fronts at home and abroad.
The 67-year-old president had come under attack for remarks in a radio interview calling for a broader discussion about the work of German soldiers in the unpopular Afghanistan mission.
“It’s my impression that a broad cross-section of our society is beginning to understand that a country of our size, with its trade interests and trade dependency, has to be able to, in emergencies, use military missions to protect our interests, for instance free trade routes,” said Mr Köhler on German state radio.
Some 10 days after the broadcast, opposition politicians complained that these remarks were inappropriate. Even the ruling Christian Democrats (CDU), who nominated Mr Köhler in 2004 to the largely ceremonial post, called the remark “unfortunate”.
Mr Köhler’s office claimed the president had not been referring to the Afghanistan mission but to German involvement in combating piracy off the eastern African coast.
That explanation raised some eyebrows – the African mission was not mentioned in the interview – and Mr Köhler said yesterday he regretted that his remarks had led to confusion. But his critics had gone too far, he said, in claiming that he backed military missions of a nature not covered by the constitution.
Only in the last decade have foreign military deployments been dispatched from German soil, all of which required strict annual parliamentary mandates.
“This criticism is without any foundation and lacks the necessary respect for my office,” Mr Köhler said, with his wife Eva at his side. “Thus I am declaring my resignation from the office of federal president – with immediate effect.” He informed Chancellor Merkel two hours before going public with the news at lunchtime.
“I tried to change his mind: that was not possible and I regret this decision deeply,” said Dr Merkel at a press briefing, exhaling an audible sigh. “I think people will be very sad because he was the president of the people in Germany.”
Mr Köhler was a close aide of Chancellor Kohl during German unification but was largely unknown at the time of his nomination in 2004, when he headed the International Monetary Fund.
Though popular with the public, he was increasingly the subject of criticism in Berlin political circles. A year into his second term, his staff had been hit by a string of prominent resignations.
The Greens and the Left Party, among his chief critics, dismissed the resignation, with Left Party politician Gregor Gysi calling it “a little over the top”. Names circulated yesterday as a potential successor included former Bavarian governor Edmund Stoiber and the popular Lutheran bishop Margot Kässmann.