Kohl quits CDU post as funds scandal escalates

Germany's former chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, has resigned as honorary chairman of the opposition Christian Democrats after he refused to name anonymous donors to party funds.

In a humiliating end to a distinguished political career, Dr Kohl stepped down after his party's leadership declared that, by refusing to identify the donors of illegal contributions, he was neglecting his duty as honorary chairman.

"I do not see myself in a position to break my promise to several people who supported my work in the CDU financially. The decision was not easy," the former chancellor said in a written statement.

A five-hour emergency meeting of the party leadership in Berlin yesterday voted almost unanimously to sanction Dr Kohl and gave full backing to his successor as leader, Dr Wolfgang Schauble.

Dr Schauble began the meeting with an offer to resign his post but he agreed to stay on after the entire executive threatened to step down if he went.

Earlier in the day, Dr Schauble met Dr Kohl in a last-ditch attempt to persuade the former chancellor to tell the whole truth about up to £1 million in illegal donations he received as party leader. Dr Kohl held firm to his refusal to name the donors on the grounds that he had given them his word that they would remain anonymous.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Dr Schauble described the scandal over illegal funding as the greatest crisis in the history of the CDU and demanded that Dr Kohl should help the party to overcome it.

"We are convinced that Helmut Kohl is in breach of his obligations as honorary chairman as long as he declines to make his contribution to overcoming the crisis and casting light on the misdemeanours. Until he makes this contribution, he should step down as honorary chairman," he said.

The Christian Democrats' crisis deepened last Friday when party leaders in the state of Hesse admitted they had channelled millions of pounds into party funds from secret accounts in Switzerland. Party officials had pretended that the money came from legacies bequeathed to the party by Jewish survivors of the Holocaust.

Dr Schauble yesterday apologised on behalf of his party to Germany's Jewish community, whose leaders were angered by the lie - not least because it reinforced racist stereotypes about "Jewish capital".