Lost credibility

To successfully fend off calls for his resignation. To restore his credibility. Through his television interview, German President Christian Wulff hoped to do both. The first may succeed for the time being. The second, however, is altogether more difficult.

Support for the president is disappearing. With this in mind, Wulff made his public appearance on prime time television.

He admitted mistakes. The way in which he had dealt with the home loan affair had not served the office well, he said. The way in which he had threatened members of the press with "consequences" over their investigations, he declared, was incompatible with his role as president.

In other respects, he was less critical of himself. For example, his close contact with business representatives and his vacations at their expense during his time as premier of the German state of Lower Saxony. He had broken no laws. Wulff presented himself humbly and did his best to portray his lapses as being only human. However, as it was, there was little new in his comments and appraisal of the events.

Even after the 15 minutes of televised questions, there were still questions to be answered. Does Christian Wulff have the stature to prevent further damage being done to the office of president? Does he have the same expectations of the office as the citizens that he, as head of state, is supposed to represent? One may have one's doubts about that. After all, even those who say that he should continue in office, must have expected more self-criticism from a man who publicly declared: "Whoever wishes to belong to the elite of a country must also take on the function and responsibility of a role model - no ifs, no buts."

After his public appearance, Wulff should now be expected - no ifs, no buts - to be able to take the special responsibility of the highest office in the land. It should be expected that he can fulfil that responsibility commandingly - as a moral entity and example that is representative of a nation.

Berlin's Bellevue Palace - the official first residence of the president - is not the right place for the type of learning process that the president says he has been going though. The highest office is exemplified through the person that holds it, through their integrity and credibility.

That is something that Wulff will have to work at and his media appearance is, at best, an opening gambit at doing so. Citizens have the right to expect that the man who had a book published with the title "Better the Truth," should live his life accordingly. Whoever puts himself forward as a family man and citizen with integrity should behave in the appropriate manner. As a political professional, nobody should know this better than Wulff.

All the more astounding has been the succession of mistakes that Wulff has made. Was it boldness or naiveté that led him to reveal only little by little the details behind the home loan that he had taken while in public office? What about the fact that he threatened journalists and tried to forestall their investigations, leaving this to be heard on a telephone answering machine?

It is just as Wulff himself said only a few months ago, "Whoever counts himself as one of the elite and bears that responsibility cannot withdraw into their own parallel world." For the president that has a very particular meaning. While, after the interview, he himself may wish to think otherwise, Wulff remains a president on probation.

Author: Ute Schaeffer / rc
Editor: Andy Valvur