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Christian Democrats confirm new secretary-general into power

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November 21, 2000 

STUTTGART, Germany-- (AP) - The opposition Christian Democrats approved the appointment of a new secretary-general Monday, the latest in a line of personnel changes as ex-Chancellor Helmut Kohl's party tries to move on from the financial scandal that has plagued it for a year.

Delegates at a party meeting in Stuttgart voted overwhelmingly in favor of naming Laurenz Meyer to succeed Ruprecht Polenz, who resigned Oct. 24 after only six months in office. Meyer's term initially runs until fall 2001, when he must be approved again by delegates at the party's annual convention.

Before the vote, Meyer pleaded for the party to address the concern's of the average citizen and lashed out against the government's "ecology tax," levied on fossil fuels to prop up the country's creaking pension system and a favorite target for conservatives.

An assertive former industry manager and senior legislator in Germany's biggest state, North Rhine-Westphalia, Meyer's task is to help lead the party out of the scandal, sparked late last year by Kohl's admissions that he received illegal anonymous donations while in office.

Parliamentary investigators and prosecutors are still probing whether the donations could have influenced government policy, a charge Kohl has steadfastly denied.

The more reserved Polenz had ascended to the post as the result of an earlier shake up that ousted Wolfgang Schaeuble, Kohl's hand-picked successor as party chairman.

Kohl himself was thrust back into the public eye this week after a newspaper began printing excerpts of his so-called diary, to be published later this month, chronicling the time after his 1998 election defeat through the scandal to the present day.

Party chairwoman Angela Merkel, who Kohl accuses in the book of conspiring against him, has criticized Kohl for claiming he had suffered most from the scandal.

Members of the governing Social Democrats weighed in with similar comments Monday.

Kohl "wants to be in the victim's role. But that won't succeed, as long as the sources of the money aren't known," said Volker Neumann, head of the parliament committee probing the scandal.