Fischer accepts blame for visa woes

Foreign minister attacks foes as well

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29. April 2005 By William Pratt

This was the event that political junkies had been waiting weeks for: Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, the one-time street fighter, battling for his political life before a special parliamentary committee on live television.
Six hours into the broadcast on Monday, the all-news station n-tv knew it had a hit on its hand. “Based on viewer reaction, we know that the interest is huge,“ a station spokesman said.

The viewers were tuning in to watch Fischer face off against parliamentary opponents over a visa policy his ministry introduced in his first two years in office. Members of the opposition from the Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, maintain that the directive opened the floodgates to criminals, prostitutes and terrorists.
But they also see it as a political opportunity to squeeze one of the stars in the cabinet of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder before Germany's most populous state goes to the polls on May 22. Like the coalition in Berlin, the government in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia is made up of Social Democrats and Greens. Some observers think that a loss there would push Schröder's government closer to the brink of defeat in next year's national election.

On Monday, Fischer went through a political interrogation that lasted more than 12 hours. The minister, long considered to be the behind-the-scenes powerbroker of the Greens, employed a two-pronged strategy designed to break the opposition's grip: He played defense at times and offense at others.

While on defense, he said: “Just write this down: Fischer is to blame.“
As part of this admission, the minister said he had been out of touch. “I should have informed earlier and taken action sooner,“ he said.
Such comments stemmed from the discussion about the directive that forms the center of the dispute. It was issued in March 2000, and it instructed visa-issuing officials to follow one principle: If in doubt, the right to travel should take precedence. The directive set off protests among some diplomats who thought the regulation ignored security concerns, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported earlier this year. “That was an ideological directive, removed from everyday practices,“ one diplomat said.

The change triggered particular interest at the German Embassy in Kiev, Ukraine. By the time 2001 ended, the embassy had issued about 300,000 visas, compared with 150,000 in the past.
While on offense, Fischer challenged the opposition's entire approach to the issue. “Just drop the scandalizing. Why don't you just say: ‘Fischer was good here. He was bad here, and he was very bad here. But do you have to label me a pimp in the process?“

The day after the hearing, the political rivals went about the task of sizing up Fischer's performance. The positions expressed did not differ at all from those held before the hearing.
“I think a resignation would be more than appropriate,“ said Eckart von Klaeden of the Christian Democratic Union.

But that was not the way that a Social Democrat saw it: “One thing is clear - the minister remains in office,“ Olaf Scholz said.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, government leaders expressed their satisfaction with Fischer's testimony and said they now could hit the campaign trail hard. “I always wanted Fischer to appear as early as possible,“ said the state's Social Democratic premier, Peer Steinbrück. “This would stop people from thinking that questions were being put off until after the election.“

Fischer's problems are just one of the worries facing Steinbrück and other Social Democrats. Their party has suffered a string of election defeats since the winter of 2003 as Schröder's national government has introduced widely criticized social reforms.
Its latest defeat occurred in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein in February when it lost 4.4 percent of its vote total from 2000 as well as the premier's position. But the Greens maintained their total, receiving 6.2 percent of the vote again.
Nationally, the coalition remains unpopular, a poll showed this week. The survey conducted by TNS Emnid showed the two Union parties and the Free Democrats would get 52 percent of the vote if national elections were held today. The coalition of Social Democrats and Greens would get 38 percent.

Now that Fischer has testified, the committee will press on with its work. The next major date on the calendar is July 8 when Interior Minister Otto Schily will testify about the questions he raised about the regulation.
One TV note: Schily has not decided whether he will agree to have the hearing broadcast.

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