Wulff under fire

German Chancellor Angela Merkel holds embattled President Christian Wulff "in high esteem," her spokesman said on Friday, two days after Wulff's apology for a telephone call to a newspaper in which the he tried to influence coverage of him.

But the German president is facing mounting criticism after Wednesday's television interview, in which he said he tried to postpone, and not stop, the publication of a newspaper article about a private home loan affair.

The mass circulation Bild newspaper has contradicted Wulff's version of events, saying the president had wanted to completely suppress the article.

The deputy editor of Bild, Nikolaus Blome, told Deutschlandfunk public radio that Wulff's call "obviously had the aim of stopping this report" and not just delaying it, as stated by Wulff in his interview.

The paper have threatened to make public the content of the voicemail to Bild editor Kai Diekmann threatening legal action if the article were published.

Letter to president

Diekmann wrote a letter to the president requesting him to approve the publication of the exact wording of the telephone call.

Wulff has declined this request, saying in a return letter that since Diekmann had accepted his apology, "the matter between [them] was closed," and it should stay that way.

Diekmann says Wulff only spoke on his voicemail after the Bild had already postponed the publication of a report on Wulff's private home loan by a day at the request of the president's office.

He claims that the president's office had withdrawn a written statement shortly before the paper went to press on the evening before the article was due to be published.

"Then came your call on my voicemail," Diekmann's letter says.

Opposition criticism

The opposition Social Democrats have stepped up their criticism of Wulff, who belongs to the Christian Democratic Union of Chancellor Angela Merkel.

However, they have so far stopped short of calling openly for his resignation.

The speaker of the SPD in the German parliament, Thomas Oppermann, said, "The president has lost his credibility."

The deputy head of the SPD parliamentary party, Hubertus Heil, asked whether "Wulff told the truth or lied."

Loans and holidays

In the public television interview on Wednesday, Wulff faced questions by two journalists about a 500,000-euro ($643,150) loan he received from the wife of a businessman in Lower Saxony.

He was also asked about holidays he had gone on at the invitation of various businesspeople.

Wulff admitted having made mistakes regarding the reporting of the affair, but maintained he had done nothing illegal.

The interview was watched by around 11.5 million viewers.

Author: Timothy Jones (dpa, Reuters)
Editor: Nicole Goebel