The German Foreign Minister, Mr Joschka Fischer, came under renewed pressure yesterday following the announcement that he is being investigated for alleged perjury. The prosecutor's office in the state of Hesse announced yesterday that it was investigating testimony Mr Fischer gave last week in a terrorist murder trial.
Mr Fischer's testimony shed light on his background as an anarchist in the 1970s and his relationship to a former terrorist Mr Hans-Joachim Klein, on trial in Frankfurt for murder.
During his testimony Mr Fischer said that although he was involved in the militant leftwing scene of 1970s Frankfurt, he had no contact with the terrorist group, the Red Army Faction (RAF). However, Ms Magrit Schiller, a former RAF militant, said that Mr Fischer gave her refuge in his Frankfurt apartment in 1973, a fact confirmed after an investigation by news magazine Focus. When asked at the trial whether he gave refuge to Ms Schiller, Mr Fischer replied: "I did not act as a hostel warden for terrorists."
Last night a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said Ms Schiller's claims were not new and that Mr Fischer, a member of the Green Party, would co-operate fully with any investigation.
News of the investigation came just hours after Mr Fischer's Green Party and government colleague, Environment Minister Mr Jurgen Trittin, was embarrassed into issuing a public statement explaining his own anarchist background.
Mr Tritten was criticised on a talk show on Sunday night for his apparent refusal to condemn the assassination by the Red Army Faction of a federal prosecutor general, Mr Siegfried Buback, in 1977.
Mr Buback's son, Mr Michael Buback, alleged that Mr Tritten belonged to a group that wrote an anonymous obituary in a college magazine expressing "secret joy" at Mr Buback's murder. Yesterday Mr Trittin distanced himself from the obituary, describing the murder as "one of the worst crimes committed by terrorists in 1970s Germany".
The series of political crises has distracted attention from robust economic growth and falling unemployment, not to mention wide-ranging tax cuts that came into effect at the start of the year. So far, the Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, has managed to turn each political crisis to his advantage and remains ahead in opinion polls.
