CDU deserts its yesteryear hero

By Batuk Gathani

BRUSSELS, APRIL 3. The former German Chancellor, Mr. Helmut Kohl, who ruled Germany for 16 years and led the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) for 25 years, turned 70 today. Mr. Kohl celebrated his birthday quietly in the company of his family and friends since the party decided to cancel his birthday celebrations, as leading Christian Democrats are trying to keep a distance from him.

Mr. Kohl is being investigated over a financial scandal, which still dominates media headlines in Germany. Mr. Kohl ranks amongst the most powerful and influential post-War European leaders and is widely credited for successfully bringing about the reunification of a divided Germany against many odds.

A financial scandal related to party funds and Mr. Kohl's own admission of wrongdoing has tainted his record, although the average German still respects and admires him. Along with the late President of France, Francois Mitterrand, Mr. Kohl gave a broader dimension to the concept of European unity and pan- European ideals, which are today personified in the creation of the European Union and the launch of a single European currency.

In Germany, as anywhere else in the world, politics can be fickle and a man who once straddled the pan-European scene like a Colossus, today cuts a sorry figure with no official celebrations marking his birthday. A large party of some 1,000 guests in Berlin has been cancelled. A decade ago, more than 3,000 guests attended his 60th birthday celebrations when Mr. Kohl was at the pinnacle of power and glory.

Mr. Kohl still refuses to reveal the sources of the funds received by him on the ground that he had given his ``word of honour'' to the secret donors that he would never reveal their identity. He gives the impression of being adamant but many of his friends admire his ``sheer guts and courage''.

Meanwhile, Mr. Kohl has raised an amount equivalent to Rs. 13 crores to pay the fines and offset the financial damage suffered by the party. He and his wife have even mortgaged their modest home to make their personal contribution to boost party funds but substantial sums have been collected from Mr. Kohl's rich and influential friends.

Once Germany's national hero, Mr. Kohl now finds himself in the company of Europe's ``has beens''. The Christian Democrats are holding their party conference later this month and will confirm the appointment of Ms Angela Merkel 45, currently the party's general secretary, as the new Chairperson.

Germany, once called the political dwarf, emerged as a major European power under the leadership of Mr. Kohl. Germany is also Europe's economic locomotive.

Mr. Kohl came to power in September 1982, when he was 52, and was rated as an uncharismatic but shrewd politician, who had worked his way up from local politics in his native Rhineland. In fact, many Christian Democrats saw him then as a mere ``passing phase'' but after 16 years in power, Mr. Kohl emerged as the most formidable political personality in Europe with an uncompromising commitment to pan-Europeanism. At one time, foreign observers even saw Mr. Kohl emerging as a statesman with a stature of Bismark, the founder of the modern German state in 1871.

On the domestic economic front, Mr. Kohl often called on Germans to become ``risk takers'' to contain Germany's unemployment crisis by launching new companies and businesses. He called for radical changes in German life, ranging from education to collective bargaining. He often worried about the educational system which has channelled 40 per cent of the university graduates in government service. Mr. Kohl warned that such a system ``endangers mentality'' and prompts young people to find ``safety first'' and makes them scared of ``entrepreneurial risk taking''. He said some seven lakhs small to medium sized family companies were ``the backbone of the social market economy'' and such companies needed new owners in the next five to seven years.

Today, on his 70th birthday, Mr. Kohl faces one of the worst crises of his brilliant career as he tries to salvage his personal reputation.

However, even his critics concede that Mr. Kohl has not been a personal beneficiary of the secret party funds.

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