Bitter Blow

Chancellor Helmut Kohl was attending a gathering of parliamentarians from his Christian Democratic Union last week when the bad news arrived: the Bonn public prosecutor's office was opening an investigation into allegations that Kohl had lied about campaign contributions from one of West Germany's largest industrial conglomerates, the Friedrich Flick Industrieverwaltung. It was the first time ever that a sitting West German Chancellor had been the subject of such a probe, and raised the possibility that Kohl might face criminal charges while still in office.

Kohl has acknowledged that as chairman of the CDU between 1974 and 1980, he accepted political contributions from Flick. Between 1969 and 1980, the giant concern doled out some $11.5 million in contributions to a wide range of West German political parties. Although the contributions were technically illegal, Kohl insists that the law governing donations was flouted by other political parties as well. In testimony in November 1984 before a parliamentary committee, however, Kohl asserted that he was unaware of $13,500 in Flick money supposedly collected for the CDU by his longtime confidential secretary, Juliane Weber, in 1977. A separate investigation is already underway, attempting to determine whether the Chancellor lied when he told another parliamentary committee that he did not know the Flick donations had been laundered through tax-free foundations.

No one suggests that Kohl personally profited from the contributions or that, since becoming Chancellor in 1982, he gave Flick special treatment in return for its financial support. Rather, the investigations will determine whether there is sufficient evidence against Kohl for a court to hear the cases. The prosecutors probably will not announce their findings until mid-May. A court hearing, if warranted, could drag beyond next January's federal elections, when Kohl hopes to win a second term.

Even if Kohl is eventually vindicated, some of his political allies believe that the country might be better off with another hand at the helm. Sounding uncharacteristically bitter last week, Kohl told the daily newspaper Bild Zeitung, "I am the most successful head of government in Europe. But being Chancellor is not my whole life. I could throw in the job today, but I do not want to." If the investigations suggest any wrongdoing, that choice might not be Kohl's to make.