Bundespräsident (Federal President) Christian Wulff has been the subject of tremendous public criticism for the last few months. Since his office and the cause of this uproar is relatively obscure in the political landscape, we will strive to outline what has incited the outrage and lay out possible scenarios.

It all began with a private loan Wulff negotiated to favorable conditions and a number of private holiday visits to friends during his tenure as premier of Baden-Württemberg in the years 2009 and 2008. Which, is, essentially all that really happened. However, crisis management does not seem to be a skill Wulff values highly.

Germany’s favorite tabloid “BILD” published the details on these private loans on December 13, citing a statement Wulff made in February 2010, in which he claimed that he had not had any business relations with the issuer of said loan for ten years. This proceeding in conjunction with the holiday invitations he accepted earlier, albeit claimed to have been legal transactions at the time (which, from our viewpoint without detailed knowledge, seems plausible) lead to the public viewpoint shifting critically.

Where Wulff had been somewhat of a moral poster boy, generally applauded by both the tabloids and big papers - after these allegations surfaced though, that moral high ground seemed to have evened out. The feeling that the president, of all people, had been a “cheapskate” permeated the minds of the people. However, the general criticism had, by and large, distilled down to the question whether such action would have been fitting to the office Wulff had been elected into. An official statement was made where Wulff provided full disclosure into any travel arrangements he had made since 2003 and the date for the private loan was evaluated.

Until, on January 1st, the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung” published an article claiming that Wulff had left inappropriately threatening voice mails for Kai Diekmann, editor in chief of the aforementioned “BILD”, citing among others an inquiry on “how the war would be fared”, that “Rubicon had been crossed” and that there would be a “final break with Springer” (BILD’s publisher). These messages had been left one day before BILD released the information regarding the private loan.

Not surprisingly, the publication of these choice quotations flared up the scandal once more - but this time with a rather different twist to it. Where previously, Wulff had left the impression of nothing more than a normal person trying to save money, a sentiment many Germans shared, in a position where public opinion no longer thought it to be acceptable, the new evidence suggested an attempted cover-up, a direct attempt to influence the media. Some even boldly stated that he was violating the freedom of the press.

While such a statement might be a little extreme (after all, the Bundespräsident does not have any significant decision making power in Germany in a position more similar to the Queen of England than a typical “president”), Wulff certainly was trying his best to influence the media with the limited “power of the word” that is so often named and associated with his office. Wulff gave a public interview, explaining that his statements had been made in the heat of the moment, that it was a hard time for him and that he was merely asking for a delay of one day in publishing the information BILD had been given. These statements, however, have been falling on deaf ears, considering his total refusal to allow the publication of a complete transcript of the phonecall.

To sum the rather tragic story up, Wulff had made some rather minute errors in judgement that lead to the original scandal, which then, due one of the most horrendous PR disasters since Guttenberg, turned it from a relatively modest affair to the onslaught it has become now. However, since there is no way to get rid of a Bundespräsident short of a criminal trial, the only way for him to go is for him to step down - which he, to his credit, refuses to do.

We will see how this turns out. The most likely scenario is that he will simply stay in office and lets this all blow over. He has just been in office for little more than one of his five years as Bundespräsident - more than ample time to simply sit this one out and move on to more dignified things. Stepping down, the choice of his predecessor, would only lead to yet another public outcry. While harshly criticized, said predecessor’s (Horst Köhler) most grief failure had been his political selfdestruction in stepping down. It would be almost comical (yet fitting the topic of worst-possible PR) and therefore unlikely to see Wulff step down.