Leading Conservative Under Fire for Jewish Comparison

During a debate about federal government plans to reintroduce a tax for wealthy people in the state parliament on Thursday, Roland Koch, the hardline conservative premier of the state of Hesse compared the lot of rich people to that of Jews in Hitler's Germany.

Referring to comments by German Union leader Frank Bsirske on television, the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) politician exclaimed that rich people were being singled out as if they had "a new form of star on their chest."

Koch's remarks caused such a tumult that the session of parliament in Wiesbaden was suspended. He subsequently apologized for the comments. A spokesman for the premier said that Koch had also written a letter to Bsirske.

Koch has been criticized virulently by opposing political leaders, trade union heads and Jewish community representatives since, while little support has come from within his own party. CDU Secretary General Laurenz Meyer views Koch's apology for his "slip" as sufficient. Green Party leaders, however, have called for Koch's resignation.

Sigmar Gabriel (photo), Social Democratic premier of Lower Saxony, accused Koch of a "calculated abuse of the Holocaust" on Friday in a session of the state parliament in Hanover. He said that the CDU in Hesse needed to stir up the atmosphere and maintain a sense of fear and hysteria to win the Feb. 2 election. Subsequently all but three CDU parliamentarians walked out of the session in protest.

Populist measures?

Koch is up for re-election as Hessian premier. If he wins, he will -- along with Angela Merkel, the party's leader -- be a frontrunner for the CDU's chancellor candidacy.

It is not the first time that Koch come under fire. In 1999 critics accused him of igniting xenophobic sentiments to win re-election. Koch rallied support by collecting signatures against the center-left federal government's plans to introduce dual citizenship.

In 2000 Koch came under pressure following revelations of the so-called "black money" affair, in which the Hessian CDU transferred 20 million German marks abroad in the early 1980s. Part of the money was subsequently disguised as "Jewish bequests" and transferred back to CDU bank accounts in Germany.

Roland Koch is only the most recent German politician to put his foot in his mouth by with remarks harking back to Germany's ignoble past.

Herta Däubler-Gmelin lost her job as justice minister in September after comparing President Bush's policies to those of Hitler. Jürgen W. Möllemann, a former minister and leading member of the Free Democratic Party, currently faces expulsion from his party after verbal and written attacks on Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon and German Jewish community leader Michel Friedman.