Something is rotten in the state of Germany, too.
No, in contrary to what I've been doing since a short while ago, I will defend Germany's Prime Minister Angela Merkel this time.
What is rotten is right in front of her, but it seems that it is out of her control. Firstly, her hand-picked choice for the ceremonial post of president, Christian Wulff, resigned. Then, Joachim Gauck was chosen as the new president, although Merkel fought against it for a while.
The stinking smell is coming from that direction: Revelations about Wulff were serious, but not enough for Merkel to stop supporting him. Wulff was forced to resign only after a prosecutor applied to revoke his presidential immunity. Like many people, I believe that a certain clique in the conservative circles of the German state and the German media pulled the trigger, even though they were aware of most of the "scandals" long before they publicized them.
But why did they suddenly pull the trigger?
Looking at Wullf's replacement may help us answer this question.
In my humble opinion, Wulff irritated almost all German conservatives out of the Merkel circle when he declared that "Islam is now a part of Germany". For anyone on the German right-wing, which still struggles to accept that the "guest worker" Turks wouldn't return to Turkey, these words by Wulff, as well his efforts to integrate the Muslim community, were utterly deplorable. Consequently, using the personal mistakes of Wulff, they managed to force him out of office without revealing the real reason of their discomfort.
The German right, who seems out of Merkel's control nowadays, has also managed to knock her off in the second round of the presidential game. By blackmailing to collapse the government, they succeeded in replacing Wulff with Gauck. When it comes to integration policies, Gauck is almost the exact opposite of Wulff.
After all, Gauck once praised the infamous closet-racist Thilo Sarrazin as "courageous" for his anti-immigrant stance. Moreover, he has been silent about accommodating Islam in Germany’s heritage, telling one interviewer that integration was not about Muslim or foreign identity, but only about helping the have-nots. These words are strikingly similar to the ones by many right-wing Turks utter, regarding Turkey's Kurds.
The presidency is a ceremonial post, but Gauck's performance will be symbolically important for the integration process.
Yes, Wulff may be both be a cheapstake and a man of leisure, but like Merkel had emphasized, he was performing his state duties perfectly and established a precious bond with minorities. Gauck, on the other hand, will surely be an ethical puritan, as a pastor. However, we know that Adolf Hitler was also a puritan.
And no, I'm not falling into the trap of reductio ad Hitlerum here. I believe that my warning is especially relevant in today's Germany, where it was recently revealed that the German police might be behind deleted evidence over the neo-Nazi murders of eight Turks and neo-Nazi music bands kept singing songs about deporting Turks. We'll see if Gauck will be the president of all Germans, like Wulff, or a just leader, -in German, führer- of a certain group.
