Les mauvaises fréquentations

Le comble ironique de la situation en Allemagne, c’est qu’on y voit un ministre menacé pour ses mauvaises fréquentations avec les Américains, et que ce ministre est un SPD très proche de Schröder, et que ces mauvaises fréquentations remontent à la période 2002-2005 où l’on disait de l’Allemagne qu’elle était devenue l’ennemie jurée de Washington.

Il s’agit de Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Il est ministre des affaires étrangères et il pourrait être contraint à la démission. Quant à Merkel, elle plane dans les sondages, en très grande part pour avoir pris la position qu’elle a prise sur Guantanamo. Sa bonne position se rapproche de celle de Matthias Platzeck, le nouveau patron du SPD venu de la gauche du parti. Steinmeier semble payer les réalités de la politique de l’équipe précédente par rapport à l’Irak, alors que Platzeck semble profiter d’être situé à gauche dans le parti, hors de l’orbite Schröder. Quant à Merkel, sa popularité est un cadeau délicat à manipuler : s’il se confirme que cette popularité est fondée sur sa position vis-à-vis de Guantanamo, c’est-à-dire la perception qu’on a d’une certaine fermeté à l’encontre des Américains, cela lui interdit la très grande sollicitude pro-américaine que ses amis anglo-saxons attendent d’elle.

Ci-après, un rappel de ce qui pourrait devenir “l’affaire Steinmeier, d’après nos sources internes: « It is the most coveted role in German politics, but for Frank-Walter Steinmeier being foreign minister is rapidly turning into a nightmare. Seen as a rising star of the SPD when he took over from Joschka Fischer two months ago, the white-haired, 49-year-old confidant of Gerhard Schroeder has been buffeted by scandal since taking office. Steinmeier has weathered the storm so far. A furore over the alleged CIA abduction and imprisonment of German citizen Khaled el-Masri blew up only two weeks after Steinmeier moved into the Foreign Ministry building at 1 Werderscher Markt street in central Berlin. The Schroeder government was accused of hushing up the kidnapping and as a key player in the old administration —Steinmeier was Schroeder's chief of staff — the new foreign minister found himself hit by a media and opposition backlash. He dodged that bullet, but then found himself engulfed in another scandal. Media reports alleged earlier this month that two German agents who were in Iraq during the 2003 U.S. invasion gathered information on bombing targets for Washington and acted as scouts for an air raid intended to kill Saddam Hussein. Steinmeier, who had responsibility for German intelligence at the time, has denied the reports, which if confirmed would discredit the Schroeder government by exposing its anti-Iraq war stance as a sham. He is now leading a battle to prevent a parliamentary inquiry into the affair, which he has denounced as a product of “scandal mongering”.

» The troubles for Steinmeier may not end there. Over the weekend, German magazine Focus reported that ransom money allegedly paid by the government last month to win the freedom of Susanne Osthoff, a German citizen kidnapped in Iraq, was found on Osthoff by German officials after her release. Steinmeier, the magazine said, had ordered “absolute secrecy” on the ransom discovery. If confirmed, the report would be a double embarrassment for him — first because Berlin wants to avoid admitting it pays ransoms and second because it would suggest Osthoff was in cahoots with her abductors and duped the government. “The story is full of inconsistencies that must be cleared up,” demanded leading conservative Wolfgang Bosbach in Die Welt. A poll for Der Spiegel magazine on Sunday showed that only 37 percent of Germans would like to see Steinmeier play an important role in German politics in the future. That compares to an 85 percent rating Angela Merkel, and a 72 percent score for Matthias Platzeck, the head of Steinmeier's SPD. »

Mis en igne le 23 janvier 2006 à 17H03