By Andrew Watson
The German President Christian Wulff resigned from his position on Friday in the aftermath of a host of scandals, which prompted calls for him to step down from his position.
Although the German presidency is much of a ceremonial office, but even then the resignation delivered a strong blow to Chancellor Angela Merkel, who supported his candidacy as president.
Merkel said in a brief televised statement that she accepted Wulff's resignation with the "utmost respect and deepest personal regret," adding that in his decision to resign, Wulff had put the interests of the general public in front.
Wulff said in a separate televised address that Germany "needs a president who can devote himself completely to national and international challenges and one who commands the trust of a wide majority of citizens. The developments of the past days and weeks have shown that this trust and therefore confidence in my ability to serve have been adversely affected. For this reason, it is no longer possible for me to continue in my role as president."
The scandal centered around alleged political favors and financial impropriety from Wulff's end when he was the state premier of Lower Saxony. On Thursday, the Hanover prosecutor's office urged the government to waive off the president's immunity from prosecution, especially considering the evidence it had gathered.
"Following extensive analyses of new documents and the evaluation of further media reports, the Hanover Public Prosecutor's Office now has sufficient factual evidence and therefore grounds for initial suspicion of receiving bribes or being granted advantages," it said in a statement. "(The Office) therefore proposes to the president of the German Parliament that immunity for the federal president be waived."
Besides Wulff, the Hanover prosecutors are also investigating David Groenewold- a German film producer.
The origin of the matter is a report that was broken first by the German tabloid BILD in mid-December, 2011. It said that Wulff received a low interest $649,000 private loan from the wife of a wealthy friend when he was still the governor of Lower Saxony.
The report attracted severe criticism, as it was revealed that Wulff had allegedly tried to prevent the paper from publishing the story. In an effort to contain any further negative reports, Wulff left an angry message on the answering machine of BILD's editor-in-chief Kai Diekmann before the publication reported the story.
