Chancellor Angela Merkel aimed yesterday to restore public confidence in her governing coalition at a meeting of party chiefs to clear the air after a scandal that poisoned the atmosphere.
Merkel’s right-left “grand coalition” can ill-afford distractions from its efforts to push on with complex reforms of the energy and pension systems in the European Union’s largest and most prosperous economy.
Merkel, Christian Social Union (CSU) leader Horst Seehofer and the Social Democrats’ (SPD) Sigmar Gabriel hoped to defuse an uproar since the CSU agriculture minister had to resign over a leak about a pornography inquiry against an SPD lawmaker.
Merkel, leader of the Christian Democrats (CDU), and Gabriel have tried to play down the scandal involving little-known legislator Sebastian Edathy, suspected of possessing child pornography.
He has left parliament, citing bad health.
The Bavarian CSU is upset about Agriculture Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich losing his job for tipping off Gabriel last October about the looming investigation into Edathy.
“At stake is clearing up all outstanding questions to restore confidence. I’m very optimistic that we will succeed,” said Merkel, whose third government is just two months old.
The chancellor said that she believed parliament would tackle open questions on the Edathy affair.
“We’ll put those issues on the table,” Merkel said of crisis talks with Seehofer and Gabriel.
She added that all three party leaders bore the “same obligation” to shore up public trust in the coalition and the rule of law.
She said regardless of whether or not Friedrich broke the law, he “took political responsibility for the possibility that trust was breached”.
Merkel said she expected a parliamentary committee meeting today to shed more light on the controversy.
Friedrich’s resignation prompted tit-for-tat calls for the SPD to offer up a scalp of their own.
In October 2013, when he was interior minister, Friedrich passed Gabriel confidential information about the Edathy case when the CDU/CSU and SPD were engaged in coalition talks.
Prosecutors have complained that the leak may have compromised their inquiry.
What was largely a domestic affair flared into a major row when SPD parliamentary leader Thomas Oppermann revealed that it was Friedrich who had warned the SPD about the investigation.
Friedrich’s CSU has demanded the SPD explain itself and some conservatives want Oppermann, who plays a pivotal role in parliament ensuring the three coalition parties work together, to be sacrificed as well.
