President Under Fire

After a weekend of unprecedented verbal attacks on the German president by her ministers, Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Sunday for an end to the harsh criticism arising from Horst Köhler’s decision to consider whether to grant clemency to a former Red Army Faction guerrilla after 24 years in prison.

Köhler announced on Friday, shortly after meeting with Christian Klar -- who was convicted in 1982 for his role a series of RAF killings -- that he would decide on the former terrorist's bid for freedom in the coming days.

The president's announcement caused an outcry in Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), with some members calling for Köhler to be denied the chance to stand for a second term in 2009 should he approve Klar's release.

Merkel calls for respect

This prompted the chancellor to release a statement calling for restraint as the criticism reached a crescendo over the weekend. "Respect for the office and person of the president must always be protected," Merkel said. "I ask that we all, regardless of how the president decides in the end, respect the decision of Horst Köhler.

"(There is) no doubt that the president will handle this difficult and controversial issue after careful examination in a very conscientious way," she added.

Merkel's words were echoed by her interior minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, who added: "The president and the president alone has the right to make these decisions. He has the highest responsibility and special obligation to decide and everyone must respect that."

The Free Democratic Party (FDP) leader Guido Westerwelle also joined in with the condemnation of the criticism. "While all opinion is allowed and in fact encouraged in this debate, the level of this criticism aimed at the federal president is absolutely unacceptable." He added that he expected more respect from the members of the CSU who had led the attacks on Köhler and by doing so had put the president and the constitution under pressure.

However, Westerwelle also took the opportunity to restate his own views on Klar's potential release by saying that he should not be pardoned until he showed remorse for his actions.

Green party co-chairperson Claudia Roth also condemned the criticism and voiced her support for a pardon. "In our constitutional state, we do not operate on revenge but reintegration," Roth said. "The CSU has no respect for Horst Köhler the person, and it ignores his presidential position." She added that the criticism over Köhler’s meeting with Klar was unfounded. "It is important and correct that (Köhler) meets with Klar and holds a personal conversation with him to get his own picture of the man."

CSU hardliners talk of withdrawing support

The attacks against Köhler were led by senior CSU politicians, including Günther Beckstein, the Bavarian state interior minister. Beckstein said that a criminal like Klar belonged behind bars and added: "It is my view of justice that a criminal who does not confess is undeserving of clemency."

CSU member of parliament Andreas Scheuer went further, saying, "If the federal president uses his power to pardon Klar then I will have to seriously consider whether the president will have my future support." In the event of a presidential pardon, Scheuer urged the German government not to countersign. "This would send out a clear message that the German government does not agree with the president’s decision," he said.

The move to release Klar is also strongly opposed by most of the families of his victims.

Klar hopes for early release

Klar, 54, has served more than 24 years of a life term for his role in several murders committed at the end of the 1970s with the urban guerrilla group.

He was jailed for a series of killings, including the shooting of Federal Prosecutor Siegfried Buback, during the RAF's violent campaign against what it called the oppressive capitalist West German state and elite in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Klar is eligible for early release in 2009 but has appealed for clemency to get out sooner as it is rare for criminals to spend more than 20 years in prison in Germany. Some Germans feel that Klar has paid his debt to society.