Rudolf Scharping, until a few hours ago head of the German ministry of defense, was fired today on behalf of his receiving payments in the amount of 72,000 Euros from people connected with the arms industry. While that amount of money appears to be "peanuts", this affair is just the last blemish on Scharping's career. The most aggravating incident involved him frolicking with his girlfriend in a pool on the Spanish holiday island Mallorca, of which a PR video was distributed, all the while German soldiers, for the first time since WW2, have been deployed abroad to a peacekeeping mission in Kosovo.
Scharping will be replaced by Peter Struck, also SPD (social democratic party)

Edited to add: Oh, and that [i]former[/i] minister of defense hasn't worn any kind of uniform in his life.

The Germans have had their share of political scandals over the past few years.  From campaign funny money to heated debates over hair color, it would seem as if Deutschland is also constantly assailed with the idiocies of its leaders.

It would seem that Herr Scharping did his mandatory duty as a CO, no?

Whatever happend to the CDU?  Have they gone the way of the Republicans in this country?

If you mean the [i]Grundwehrdienst[/i], the (now nine, formerly 18 months) mandatory basic mil training for every male between the ages of 18 and 26, nope, he didn't. Details escape me at the moment.



Same as here, "conservative party vs. progressive" are pretty much merely two blocks of the same party.