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BERLIN.
German Defence Minister Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg resigned yesterday morning, after mounting political pressure over allegations he plagiarised large parts of his doctoral thesis.
“It is not possible, however, to meet the expectations placed on me and on the necessary deg-ree of independence in my responsibilities,” he said in a statement from the Defence Ministry in Berlin. “It’s the most painful step of my life,” he said.
“I was always ready to fight, but I have reached the limits of my powers,” the embattled minister said.
“I have informed the Chancellor (Angela Merkel) in a very friendly conversation that I will withdraw from my political offices and asked for a resignation,” Guttenberg said.
Besides the plagiarism allegation, Guttenberg has been under fire for a series of military scandals, including the accidental killing of a German soldier in Afghanistan and an alleged mutiny on a German navy training ship. German media said he had not properly handled those crises.
Guttenberg said his resignation clearly showed he was not “a minister of self-defence,” as his opponents often criticised.
He then criticised the “enormous force of media” that diverted public attention “almost exclusively to the person Guttenberg” in the past two weeks rather than to the death and life of German soldiers in Afghanistan.
The media’s erupting report on the thesis issue has distracted his role as defence minister, he said.
Germany’s main opposition party, the Social Democrats, has been sharply attacking Guttenberg and calling for his resignation. In recent days, criticism began to arise within the ruling parties.
Parliamentary President Norbert Lammert, a Christian Democrat member, said the affair was “a nail in the coffin for the trust in our democracy.” And his colleague Annette Schavan, the education minister, said on Monday what Guttenberg did was a shame.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is attending the world’s leading IT trade fair CeBIT in Hanover, has been informed of Guttenberg’s decision, which interrupted her scheduled morning tour of the expo. She had a long telephone conversation in the morning, according to German newspaper Bild. – Xinhua.