CDU to Pay Fine for Slush Fund Scandal

The CDU will have to pay a €21 million ($25.5 million) penalty related to the slush-fund scandal involving the party during former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl's time in office, according to Thursday's ruling of Germany's highest court in Karlsruhe. The CDU has been fighting the penalty, which called on the party to return the €21 million it received in state funds. Wolfgang Thierse, who as president of the Bundestag, Germany's lower house of parliament oversees party and campaign financing, has been trying to reclaim the state funds from the CDU -- which he says were given based on false records -- since news of the scandal broke in 1999. Members of the CDU's Hesse state branch have since been charged with moving money to Switzerland and back in order to avoid financial reporting requirements.