Rising Star in Kohl’s Party May Face Donations Probe

A young leader whom the Christian Democrats had hoped would help lift them out of their campaign-funding scandal may face a criminal probe after admitting that he lied about the source of donations, prosecutors said Wednesday.

The admission by Hesse state Gov. Roland Koch cast doubt on his effort to expose secret accounts run for years by the Christian Democrats’ state branch there. Those accounts have been one of the flash points of the funding scandal centered on former Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

Koch revealed Tuesday that he falsely reported about $750,000 in state party funds as having come from a donor even though he had known since December that the money came from a secret account.

The local Greens party filed a complaint citing attempted fraud. Afterward, prosecutors in the state capital, Wiesbaden, said Wednesday that they were considering whether to put Koch under criminal investigation.

But Koch rejected growing calls--including a strong hint from Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder--for his resignation and new state elections.

“We have a mandate from voters,” insisted Koch, who won election a year ago. “If my generation runs away, the Christian Democrats will be in huge danger.”

Koch’s political future hinges on the small Free Democrats, his junior coalition partner in the state legislature. Although the party’s national leader called Koch’s conduct unacceptable, local Free Democrat legislators voiced continued support.

Koch, 40, was a rising star while Kohl ran the Christian Democrats for a quarter of a century. He had appeared largely unscathed in the scandal, which exploded when Kohl admitted late last year that he had illegally solicited up to $1 million from donors he has refused to name.

Now Schroeder--a member of the Social Democratic Party, the Christian Democrats’ main rival--is criticizing Koch’s refusal to budge.

“The self-appointed investigators are part of the system,” Schroeder told the Flensburger Tageblatt newspaper. He said Koch should “make a real break to help reestablish trust in Hesse politics.”

Schroeder said in an interview released Wednesday that he would like to see tougher penalties, including jail time, for violations of party finance laws. Under current law, violations can lead at worst to fines against the party.