Justice Minister 'to resign' over Hitler allegations

Germany’s justice minister has decided to step down after coming under fire for allegedly making an indirect comparison between US President George W Bush and Adolf Hitler, it was reported today.

According to a release of the tabloid Bild’s Monday edition, Justice Minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin plans to announce her resignation after polling stations close tonight, amid growing pressure from within her party, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democrats.

Government spokesman Uwe-Karsten Heye called the report pure speculation.

In a campaign already tainted by tensions with the US, due to Schroeder’s emphatic opposition to American military action to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, Washington responded to the remarks with dismay and disappointment at one of its strongest allies.

Bush’s national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, was quoted as saying that the alleged remark created a “poisoned” atmosphere.

“I would say it’s not been a happy time with Germany,” Rice added.

“The reported statements, even if half of what was reported was said, are simply unacceptable.”

Schroeder’s conservative challenger, Edmund Stoiber, accused Schroeder of damaging US-German relations with his emphatic opposition to American military action to oust Hussein.

He also called for Daeubler-Gmelin’s resignation, accusing her of damaging Germany’s reputation internationally.

The furor erupted after a regional newspaper, the Schwaebisches Tagblatt, reported Thursday that Daeubler-Gmelin told a labour union meeting: “Bush wants to distract attention from his domestic problems. That’s a popular method. Even Hitler did that.”

At a news conference Friday, Daeubler-Gmelin gave a different version. She said during a chaotic discussion that touched on Iraq, she had referred to diversionary tactics and had used the words “we know that from our history, since Adolf Nazi.”

But she denied saying the name Hitler.

Schroeder sought to defuse tensions in a conciliatory letter to the US president sent Friday.

Schroeder also wrote that he would not allow anyone to remain in his Cabinet who compared an American president to a criminal.