LAST APRIL I was going to write a story about German defense minister Rudolf Scharping after hearing him speak at the New Atlantic Initiative here in Washington. Scharping, a former chairman of the SPD (the German Socialist party), talked about the war against terrorism, cooperation between the United States and Germany, and then strayed from his prepared remarks to talk about how he was personally affected by September 11. It was a nice touch.
But mentioning my story idea to a friend, he replied, “Don’t waste your time. He’ll be out of there before you know it.” Sure enough, last week, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder made the announcement that, “In my opinion, the necessary basis for working together no longer exists.” And just like that, Rudolf Scharping was fired and replaced by SPD party whip Peter Struck.
Why wasn’t his ouster a surprise? Since he was appointed defense minister by Schroeder in 1998, Scharping has been no stranger to controversy. He has been accused of everything from intervening in defense contract negotiations to disrupting military aid to Israel to showing off his skills at underwater-acrobatics before the paparazzi. (This last charge stems from a vacation in Mallorca with his girlfriend, Countess Pilati–while at the same time German soldiers were being deployed in Macedonia. Check out the cover of Bunte magazine here for the photos.) “He won’t be around for the next administration,” a German diplomat told me. A high-ranking member of the German Green party also said, “I am 100 percent certain of two things: That Joschka Fischer will continue as foreign minister and Rudolf Scharping will be out of a job.”
The last straw came with the recent publication of an article in the German newsweekly Stern that exposed Scharping’s cozy relationship with Moritz Hunzinger’s PR agency. The report alleged that Scharping used undue influence in expediting a sale of submarines to the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, that he received $72,000 from Hunzinger in return, and that the PR agency gave him $27,000 worth of new clothing. (When I met Scharping in April, he certainly was dressed in a nice suit–but how many suits can you possibly buy with $27,000?) Scharping, meanwhile, has fired back in an interview with the tabloid Bild, saying the $72,000 was related to his book contract and “the money was duly declared with tax authorities.”
Nevertheless, this latest scandal proved too much for Chancellor Schroeder, who faces a serious reelection fight in two months. The September 22 elections are very much up in the air: Germans get to vote for their local representatives who are then sent to the Bundestag in Berlin. These men and women convene and vote on who will be the next chancellor. Logically, it would seem that if you like Schroeder, you’d vote to put an SPD politician into office who would then cast his predictable party-line vote for you. But it might not work out that way this year.
The latest polls clearly show Schroeder as more popular than his nearest opponent, Edmund Stoiber of the conservative Christian Socialist/Christian Democratic Union. Stoiber, a skillful politician from the south, is considered the Al Gore of the race–intelligent but devoid of personality. Recent televised debates have only made things worse for him. At the same time, however, when it comes to local representation, polls indicate that the Christian Democrats have a considerable lead over the SPD. And so the question remains: How will German voters reconcile their love of Schroeder with their love of the CDU? I asked Scharping this question three months ago. “People do not want change right now,” he said confidently. “Everybody wants things to stay the same.”
Apparently everybody but Schroeder, who viewed Scharping as a liability. In fact, in an online Sueddeutsche Zeitung poll, 41 percent of Germans say the dismissal was “good” and “one less risk factor for the party and for the chancellor.” (28 percent said it was a bad move that would cost the SPD votes, 30 percent said it would make no difference.)
Meanwhile, the future is less certain for the 54-year-old Scharping–a man who has been active in politics since he was 18. He may write a book or host a show. Or maybe he will reenter the SPD fray if the Christian Democrats win in September. (My personal recommendation would be that he first go back to that spa in Mallorca.)
Herewith are Scharping’s closing remarks from his New Atlantic Initiative address last April, which I still think are worth sharing:
“I will tell you a very short story about September 11. I came back from a more or less challenging meeting of our parliamentary defense committee, went into my office, switched . . . through the TV channels to see what is happening, what are the news. . . . I saw the first tower of the World Trade Center burning, and my first thought was, What is that? Is that a new film? What’s really happening? And then I saw the second airplane hitting the second tower. I tried to make a phone call for more than two hours. And it was for me as an individual a very, very–how to say it?–a difficult time, because I wanted to reach my oldest daughter working in New York not far away from the World Trade Center. And during all these exercises I had to make a phone call but it was not possible.
“We had a short meeting in the German chancellery–the chancellor, the foreign minister, and me as defense minister. And within less than five minutes, we agreed that THIS is the first case of invocation of Article 5 [of the NATO Charter]. I spoke about those German citizens gathered around the Brandenburg Gate, but I understand very well that ALL these developments, ALL these challenges, ALL these threats, ALL the issues we are dealing with–they have much more than a so-called political, and much more than a so-called technical or whatever dimension.
“In the background there’s a very deep emotional tie between the German and American citizens–and that is what I wanted to make clear–we are talking about many, many details, yes. But we should not forget that what we call common heritage is not only something of nostalgia and in the past. It is a strong fundament for our common future–and I would say we have, as democracies, in substance and in principle no other choice than to work together in a more and more globalized, complex world which challenges also our security in many dimensions. Thank you very much for your attention.”
Victorino Matus is an assistant managing editor at The Weekly Standard.
