CHANCELLOR ANGELA Merkel has insisted she has “full confidence” in her education minister, accused of plagiarising sections of her doctoral thesis.
The 1980 dissertation by Dr Annette Schavan, a close Merkel confidante, is being examined by her alma mater, the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf.
However, a leaked analysis commissioned by the university found the thesis, entitled Personality and Conscience, to contain “characteristics of a plagiaristic approach” and a “clear intention to deceive”.
If this verdict is confirmed by the university, the 57-year-old minister would likely be stripped of her doctorate – a move that would cost her political credibility and force her departure from the cabinet. Ms Schavan said yesterday that she could not remember all details of her 32-year-old dissertation but insisted she had “not consciously incorrectly attributed any sources”.
“At no point did I try to mislead,” she said.
Dr Merkel said she would “wait for the university’s reaction”.
“The minister has my utmost confidence,” said the chancellor. “The university is independent in its ruling procedures and I have respect for that.”
A resignation of Ms Schavan, education and research minister since 2005, would make her the second German cabinet minister to stand down over a plagiarised thesis.
Last year an anonymous internet co-operative found defence minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg had lifted almost half of his 475-page thesis without attribution. Other public figures were caught out in subsequent analyses by the same group. Their analysis of Ms Schavan’s thesis left the group divided, however, with some not sure there was enough evidence of conscious deception.
A second breakaway group, however, went public with the analysis saying the passages they found questionable – 92 in a 335-page work – were too numerous to be a coincidence.
The university analysis, conducted over the last five months, found 60 questionable passages. On Wednesday the responsible commission will meet to consider the report’s findings.
