Kohl in bitter attack on ex-allies

The former German chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, made an embittered attack against former political allies and the media yesterday for turning the self-proclaimed "reunification chancellor" into a political pariah.

Dr Kohl found himself at the centre of a political fund-raising scandal last year and admitted accepting over DM2 million (£800,000) in illegal political donations.

"What I have had to experience has been an unprecedented campaign that breaks all the rules of fair reporting," Dr Kohl wrote in newspaper extracts from My Diary 1998-2000 to be published next week.

"The goal of the campaign is to criminalise me and to discredit my 16-year term as chancellor. I won't allow that," he added.

He offered no reason for accepting the illegal donations but said he was "torn apart" by the scandal that destroyed his reputation exactly 10 years after "the dramatic days when we worked round the clock to open the door to German unity".

Dr Kohl attacked the current Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader, Dr Angela Merkel, for being one of the first to turn on him in spite of his having personally nurtured her career. "Without my clear vote for her she would never have had this unprecedented political career," he wrote.

He went further, accusing her and the former party leader, Mr Wolfgang Schauble, of conspiring in a "planned game with designated players" to save their own reputations at his expense.

A year on, the CDU is still trying to find its feet after the slush fund scandal that cost Mr Schauble his job as party leader. Today the party meets in Stuttgart to replace Mr Ruprecht Polenz, the deputy leader fired by Dr Merkel last month.

In her eight months at the helm, Dr Merkel has failed to unify the CDU, and party members are doubtful that she will be a strong enough candidate for chancellor in the 2002 general election. She has had little success in redefining party policy, instead playing catch-up to her own parliamentary leader, Mr Friedrich Merz.

Mr Merz increased his profile and stirred up controversy recently by calling for more controlled immigration. The Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, said it was "grotesque" to make immigration an election issue and the CDU was desperately trying to win back votes by appealing to extremists.