While serving as premier of the state of Lower Saxony, Wulff allegedly had friends pay for his vacations to Spain and the German coast and give him favorable bank loans and rental cars. As president, when the allegations started to unfold, he rushed to repay his friends, in cash. More embarrassingly, he pressured a German newspaper not to publish a story about a private loan he had accepted. Because he could not reach the editor, he left an angry voice message to this effect in which he managed to drop the fact that he was visiting Kuwait and "I'm just on my way to the Emir." The incident led to the coining of a new German verb: Wulffen which now stands for leaving an insufferable message on someone's answering machine. Its meaning has since expanded to include being evasive when asked to tell the truth — and for accepting favors. (German President Quits in Favors Scandal)
As he resigned, Wulff said, "I have lost the people's trust and for that reason I can no longer fulfil the role of President at home and abroad." For her part, Merkel cancelled a trip to Italy on Friday to deal with the crisis. She accepted his resignation "with respect but also with regret," saying he "had dedicated himself to the interests of Germany. She insisted, however, that Wulff had "acted legally and correctly."
Indeed, none of the allegations against Wulff involve illegalities. But, if true, they were unseemly: a 500,000 euro, low interest home loan in exchange for allowing a friend to tag along on an official foreign trip, for instance. And the alleged misdeeds are all said to have taken place back when he was governor of Lower Saxony. But the sheer number of favors and freebies, and his reluctance to confront the accusations, made remaining in the presidential Bellevue Palace, and needless to say, in office, untenable. No German president has ever been subject to a corruption probe and that would have been especially bad publicity for Berlin as it deals with fellow EU countries in bankruptcy and liquidity crises. How fair would it have been, for example, to scold Greece for mismanagement when Wulff remained in office in Germany?
"The resignation shows the self-purification powers of German politics and society," insists Gerd Langguth, a professor of political science at Bonn University. "It also shows the public that there are no different standards for the president than for any other citizen." But, he notes, because it took Wulff so long to decide to resign, "it is a huge setback for Merkel." Heinrich Oberreuter, who teaches political science at Passau University contends that "for Merkel, the damage is mostly a domestic one. German political culture has taken a blow. Germans have lost trust in politics, politicians and political parties."
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