Wednesday 4 January 2012

Embattled German President Christian Wulff to speak on scandal

German President Christian Wulff (22 Dec 2011) Mr Wulff left an angry voicemail on the phone of Bild newspaper's chief editor

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Germany's President Christian Wulff, under pressure for his conduct over a home loan, is due to answer questions about the affair on national TV.
He has faced calls to resign after it emerged he had threatened a newspaper with legal action if it published details about the controversial loan.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman has said she is confident he would "fully answer all relevant questions".
Mr Wulff, 52, is to give a joint interview to two major German networks.
ARD and ZDF said the interview would be broadcast on Wednesday at 2015 (1915 GMT).
ARD's news website said it was not expecting him to submit his resignation. Earlier, it reported that Mr Wulff was returning to work after the Christmas break with the intention of staying on as president.
Mr Wulff, a centre-right Christian Democrat, was Chancellor Merkel's candidate for the presidency after Horst Koehler stood down in May 2010 over remarks about German's military deployment in Afghanistan.
Mrs Merkel's spokesman, Georg Streiter, told a news briefing on Wednesday that she had "enormous respect for the work of the president".
Angry voicemail
Last month it emerged that he had received a low interest 500,000 euro home loan (£417,000; $649,000) from the wife of a wealthy businessman in October 2008, while prime minister of Lower Saxony state.
He has denied misleading state deputies over the loan which was later replaced with a bank mortgage.
Further revelations came this week, when it became clear that the president had left an angry voicemail on the mobile phone of Bild newspaper's chief, Kai Diekmann, on 12 December threatening legal action if it published the loan story.
A call was also made to Bild's publisher, in an attempt to suppress the article. The paper said he later apologised.
Although Mr Wulff apologised last month for not disclosing the details of his private loan for becoming president, the details of his threatening phone calls have caused alarm in Germany.
A CDU party colleague, Vera Lengsfeld, has joined a number of newspapers in calling for his resignation, arguing that Mr Wulff can no longer be taken seriously by most Germans.
Although the post of president is largely ceremonial, it is also supposed to provide a moral compass for the nation.
The BBC's Berlin correspondent, Stephen Evans, says that the allegation facing Mr Wulff is that by trying to bully Bild newspaper he was trying to tamper with the freedom of the press.

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