German in Hot Water Won’t Quit

Germany’s defense minister stood firm Monday in a showdown with lawmakers over allegations that he used government planes to visit his girlfriend, insisting that he won’t step down despite the flap that has embarrassed Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

Rudolf Scharping first came under fire last month after celebrity magazine photos showed him splashing with his companion in a swimming pool on the Spanish island of Majorca, just as German soldiers prepared to head to Macedonia as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s peacekeeping mission.

Reports followed that he used an air force plane to return overnight to Majorca between two official engagements and frequently used government planes to fly to Frankfurt, where his girlfriend lives.

Scharping, a senior figure in Schroeder’s Social Democratic Party, denied during Monday’s special session of the lower house’s defense committee that he made private trips at taxpayer expense and insisted that every flight had an official purpose.

Rejecting opposition demands that he resign, Scharping said, “I see no reason for such a step.”

He presented the committee with a list of 350 official flights he has made since taking office in 1998. His party later said the list should now be sent to a federal auditing agency for review.

Though the opposition has presented no proof that Scharping abused government flights, it maintains that he has lost credibility.

“Even if everything with the flights was formally in order, Rudolf Scharping has lost the soldiers’ respect,” said lawmaker Martin Hohmann of the opposition Christian Democrats.

But Schroeder reiterated his support just before the committee session, saying he believed that Scharping was telling the truth.

Committee Chairman Helmut Wieczorek, a Social Democrat, said Monday’s questioning yielded no evidence that Scharping had breached guidelines on the use of government planes by top officials.

With his own party aghast at his lack of political sensitivity, Scharping conceded in a weekend interview that the timing of the photo spread with his companion was a “mistake.”