Rent-a-premier
February 22, 2010
The Christian Democrat premier in Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, is facing a barrage of criticism two and a half months before a crucial regional election there.
CDU officials from the local headquarters in Duesseldorf have admitted sending out letters to companies offering them a personal meeting with premier Juergen Ruettgers for cash.
The meetings were supposed to take place at a party convention in March. The letters in question also included an offer to rent exhibition floor space at the convention for 14,000 euros ($19,000).
For an extra 6,000 euros, they'd be guaranteed a personal conversation with the state premier or other high-ranking Christian Democrat leaders.
"We're talking about a real scandal," said Michael Groschek, general secretary of the main opposition party in the state, the Social Democrats. "It's come to light that you can actually rent Juergen Ruettgers, if you've got the cash."
More revelations to follow?
Some say the letters, which have now been withdrawn, are only the tip of the iceberg and claim that the regional CDU has been cashing in on fixing appointments with the premier for many years.
A representative of a local company told regional public broadcaster WDR that his firm paid extra money for a meeting at a convention back in 2006. He added that one could also get oneself placed at Ruettgers' table at a dinner party for a five-digit sum.
The state premier himself has been trying hard to contain the damage. He said he himself wasn't aware of the letters.
"No such bilateral conversations for money have ever taken place," Ruettgers claimed. "The hundreds of meetings I have with people every week free of charge should tell you that the accusations are nonsense."
Political blunder to cost credibility
Political scientist Gerd Langguth of Bonn University feels that North Rhine-Westphalia's CDU has made a silly mistake in explicitly asking for money for a meeting.
"It always leaves a bit of a nasty aftertaste when talks with politicians are paid for," he says. "On the other hand, everyone who pays for exhibition space at a state convention of whatever party expects that the premier will drop by for a conversation. I don't think that there's much difference here between the parties."
Whether such behavior runs counter to the national party financing law has yet to be investigated by the Federal Administrative Court.
In a bid to shift attention away from the premier, the regional CDU's general secretary, Hendrik Wuest, resigned on Monday, thus assuming full responsibility for the affair.
The opposition Greens in North Rhine-Westphalia have called on the premier to appear before the regional parliament to try and prove that a "Rent-a-Ruettgers" initiative has never taken place. Aside from that, they want to know whether the donations collected this way have ever appeared in the CDU's party books.
hg/dpa/AFPD
Editor: Michael Lawton