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WEEKLY
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| German minister under fire over Afghan strike |
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Saturday, November 28, 2009
BERLIN: After media revelations over a deadly bombing in Afghanistan claimed the scalp of Germany’s top general, the press and opposition turned their guns on the defence minister at the time on Friday.
Franz Josef Jung, now labour minister in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet, refused to step down in a parliamentary statement late on Thursday, saying he had been totally open about the strike, but calls for his head have intensified.
In a devastating front-page editorial entitled “Resign Please”, the Financial Times Deutschland said: “Franz Josef Jung failed as defence minister and should resign from his position as labour minister.”
“It would be no loss to the cabinet. There’s nothing more to say,” the paper added, leaving the rest of its front-page editorial column blank in a stark visual statement.
“Why is Merkel hanging on to Jung?” asked the influential mass circulation Bild daily, whose initial revelation that a military report on the September 4 strike had been suppressed prompted the scandal. Business daily Handelsblatt said: “The man is out of his depth. No doubt about it, he has to go.”
“Merkel recognised last year that Jung was no longer viable as defence minister and gave him a new start as labour minister. It’s difficult to imagine that he’ll be leading his new ministry for much longer,” wrote the Tagesspiegel daily. Smelling ministerial blood just weeks after Merkel formed her new cabinet after a crushing election victory, opposition parties piled in with vigour.
“Mr Jung is not suitable for a government position,” said Susanne Kastner, chair of the defence committee in the parliament and member of the main opposition party, the centre-left Social Democrats.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
