Everything seems normal.
However, when questioned by the state council, Christian Wulff told a lie. He denied that he had received loans from entrepreneurs he was familiar with. Anyway, exposure of the 500,000-euro loan has further exposed that the bank that granted him the loan offered him a preferential rate, and he had received a payment from an entrepreneur for promoting a new book.
However, that’s not the end.
Christian Wulff has got himself into another trouble as the New Year drew close. He tried to stifle a relevant newspaper report on the controversial private loan.
Now he is facing intense domestic pressure after the revelation that he had left an angry message in the voicemail of Bild editor-in-chief Kai Diekmann on December 12, threatening legal action.
Of course, the president realized the serious consequences soon. So after two days, he made an apology to the media for his misbehavior.
However, there is no remedy for bygones.
People from all walks of life in Germany strongly condemned the president, saying that he had trod on the bottomline of press freedom. A report quoted a German jurist as saying that, as a well-known political figure, it is essential to conduct with caution at any time in public, for there always are eyes on you, your private life and business contacts are under the supervision of public opinion.
Anyone who breaks the rules would be exposed to the public by the relentless media, having his or her career ruined finally.
So among the presidents’ troubles, the most serious one is revolting the media, not lying, or the controversial loan.
Fortunately, while expressing anger to the media, the president had not forgotten to call the media personally, indicating that he was still sober-minded.
In fact, under such a political system, politicians have to be very careful so as to not get into various troubles. Rival political parties would make a great fuss about the misconduct of the other, try every means to amplify their flaws, thus making trouble for them.
As a matter of fact, Germany is one of the few European Union countries which had not been seriously affected by the debt crisis spreading all over Europe.
Maybe we can learn something from the German presidents’troubles as to why his country has fared well thus far.
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