Under pressure

There is growing pressure on German President Christian Wulff to come clean about a private loan that he received from a wealthy businessman while he was premier of the state of Lower Saxony in 2008.

The chairman of the opposition Social Democratic Party, Sigmar Gabriel, called on the president to publicly respond to questions raised by media reports about the loan and his ties to rich businessmen in recent days.

"I find it unfortunate that not he but his lawyers are speaking," Gabriel told the daily Passauer Neue Presse. "I fear that the affair is contributing to a growing lack of trust in politics," Gabriel added.

At the same time, though, Gabriel warned against calling for the president's resignation.

"This would inflict serious damage on the sense of trust in democratic institutions. This makes clarification all the more important," he added.

Gabriel was referring to the fact that if Wulff were to resign, he would be the second head of state to step down within the space of two years. Former President Horst Köhler stepped down in May of 2010 amid a media uproar over comments he made during a trip to Afghanistan. Wulff, of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, was elected as Koehler's successor by a special body of parliamentarians and other prominent Germans known as the Federal Convention in June 2010.

Transparency weighs in

The German chapter of the anti-corruption organization Transparency International also weighed in on the debate on Thursday.

"The president must publicly and unreservedly put all of his cards on the table before his Christmas address on Sunday," Edda Müller, the chairperson of Transparency International Deutschland told the daily paper Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung. She added that for him to give the annual address without first clearing up any outstanding issues would be awkward, but that doing so would give him the chance to "win new trust and respect" among the general population.

Fresh allegations

This comes a day after fresh allegations emerged about the president's former ties with rich businessmen.

A lawyer for the president confirmed that wealthy German businessman Egon Geerkens took part in negotiations regarding a 500,000-euro ($657,000) loan that Wulf received in 2008 to help him buy his family home. In a statement to the newspaper Die Welt, Gernot Lehr conceded that Egon Geerkens had been involved in the search for a family home "because of his special expertise and friendly relations," although the private loan actually came from Geerkens' wife Edith.

Wulff had already been under pressure after he admitted to having failed to disclose the loan received from Edith Geerkens. Egon Geerkens is an old family friend.

Book promotion

The story in Die Welt followed a story in the mass-circulation Bild newspaper, which included claims that the wealthy tycoon Carsten Maschmeyer financed advertising to promote a book written by the president.

Maschmeyer reportedly paid 43,000 euros in 2008 to publicize the book titled "Better Tell the Truth," which played a critical role in Wulff's re-election as premier of the northern German state of Lower Saxony. Maschmeyer said however, that the president was not aware of the financial support for the book, which documents his private and political life.

Members of Wulff's CDU, including the chancellor and Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere have publicly backed the president.

Author: Chuck Penfold (dapd, dpa, epd, Reuters)
Editor: Nicole Goebel