A lot of German news today, it seems. Perhaps it is fitting penance for the light blogging of the last few days. I hadn't paid too much attention to what's going on in Germany, but the fight in the FDP looks to be intensifying. The flap began well before the election, when Möllemann went off on an anti-semitic campaign theme and was not reined in by the party leadership. As part of his election campaign, he sent out an anti-semitic flyer to households in his state of Northrhine-Westphalia. Now there are accusations that the funding for this flyer has come from illegal campaign contributions to the tune of 840,000 euros. The money was donated anonymously in 145 batches of 1000 to 8000 euros at 14 different banks. The addresses of the donors can in general not be traced, but the few people who could be tracked down deny ever having made contributions to the FDP. Significantly, the FDP treasurer Rexrodt (who brought the accusations to the fore) also says that the money may be of foreign origin. That could yet be an interesting development if it proves to be true, as Möllemann is known to be on friendly terms with several unpleasant regimes in the Middle East.

Möllemann himself is currently off the stage suffering cardiac arhythmia, meaning he has not yet had a chance to defend himself properly against these accusations. Given the damage that he has caused to the FDP, these allegations could be seen as part of a payback conspiracy, an easy way to get him out. But I doubt that: this is not doing the FDP any good either, whose finances aren't great to begin with, and if true, this affair will only make the FDP look even worse for not having dealth with Möllemann in the first place.