felix qui possit rerum cognoscere causas
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October 20, 2002
Well, he's gone
Jürgen Möllemann has resigned. Having become implicated in a illegal contributions scandal, his position had become completely untenable, as came on top of his anti-semitic campaigning. In his resignation statement, he accused the FDP leadership of trying to undermine his recovery from cardiac arhythmia, saying that "Apparently my political death is more important for them than the consequences of their destrucive behavior for the FDP." In reality, Möllemann's resignation will help the FDP, who had been seriously tainted by his remarks. However, it seems Möllemann is unlikely to keep quiet once he has recovered, so there may yet be further convulsions. Comments
Möllemann's plight has made me feel that most German of all emotions, Schadenfreude. His membership in the party was most regrettable, particularly in the last election. The FDP was/ is the only political force in Germany with any feasible answers at all to its current problems, IMH (and expat American) O. Unfortunately, his bizarre and anti-semitic views and big mouth hurt the FDP enough to keep the current crowd in power. It looks like there may well be criminal charges against him; we can only hope, because if he's convicted, he'll never return to politics. I never understood how someone like him could get so far in the party of people like Otto Graf Lambsdorff, Hans Dietrich Genscher, and many others, still less that Genscher mentored him early in his career. Posted by: FeloniousPunk on October 22, 2002 01:37 PMIt is indeed amazing that the FDP, the party that has traditionally been closest to classic liberal values should have produced somebody like Möllemann. I do blame the Westerwelle and the FDP leadership for not getting rid of him sooner and causing so much damage to their party. It is also worth remembering that Jörg Haider came to power in Carinthia as a member of the FPÖ, the liberal party. He took over the party apparatus forcing the real liberals out, who later founded their own party to carry on in the older tradition of the FPÖ. At least it seems the FDP will avoid the FPÖ's fate, but it remains to be seen if they can regain the momentum they had following the CDU's sleaze scandals. Post a comment
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