It is, as they say, the little things that can tri you up. After committing a number of serious blunders, Mr Rudolf Scharping has been sacked as Germany's defence minister, primarily because of an alleged lavish shopping spree. Stern magazine revealed last week that Mr Scharping received payments worth some €70,000 from an advance for his memoirs and lecture fees. Members of the German cabinet are not allowed receive anything other than their ministerial salary while in office but the money was paid to him before he joined the cabinet.
However Stern also alleged that Mr Scharping had spent some of the money on expensive clothing and this does not sit well with the German Chancellor's very public austerity lifestyle - which happens to go down well with his party's traditional working-class supporters. Mr Scharping denied the shopping extravaganza and said that most of the income, on which he paid tax, was donated to charity. All this was to no avail. Mr Scharping got thrown out of office almost instantly; an indicator of the panic afflicting the German government as it faces a general election while trailing badly in the polls.
There can be no denying that the Chancellor, Mr Schröder, acted decisively, perhaps even too decisively. But if he thought that dumping the weakest member of his cabinet would be electorally beneficial, he has been proved wrong. Reaction in Germany has been hostile. Mr Scharping is the eighth cabinet member to leave the four-year-old government; the image of bungling and inadequacy is difficult to deny.
Mr Schröder faces the voters in less than ten weeks time. It is not, however, the calibre of his cabinet which will be uppermost in voters's minds but the state of the economy and unemployment in particular. When Mr Schröder assumed office, he asked to be judged by his record on reducing unemployment but come the election, it is likely to be at or near the four million mark which he inherited.
His rival for the Chancellorship, Mr Edmund Stoiber of the Christian Social Union, runs a comparatively healthy economy in Bavaria - a fact which will come in for much emphasis in the election campaign. Germany's high unemployment owes much to structural problems, particularly the high social costs for employers. Mr Schröder, to his credit, has introduced serious tax reform but, as yet, it has had little effect. He needs good economic news fast if he is to have any chance of remaining in office. Dumping duff cabinet ministers will not suffice.