Horst Koehler, the leading candidate to become Germany's next president in May, has accused the United States of arrogance in its foreign policy and of pursuing a failed strategy in Iraq, media reported on Monday.
At a meeting with regional lawmakers in the western city of Duesseldorf, Koehler said last week Washington had committed "serious mistakes" by not developing a strategy for post-war Iraq, several people at the meeting were quoted as saying.
"Their power went to the Americans' heads," the conservative nominee for the largely ceremonial post of president was quoted as saying by newspapers, adding that he strongly supported German-American friendship and there was no reason for gloating.
Koehler's spokesman, Arne Delfs, declined comment, saying the meeting had not been open to the public.
But a source close to Koehler said: "What Mr Koehler says at every such meeting is that the Americans made mistakes, as did the Germans and Europeans, and that we should be on the side of the Americans now."
The comments clashed, however, with the pro-US stance of the conservative opposition Christian Democrats at a time when Social Democratic Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's resistance to last year's Iraq war caused a rift with Washington.
Koehler resigned as International Monetary Fund chief in March to return home to stand for the presidency. He is almost certain to win as his backers have a majority in a special parliamentary assembly that will elect the president on May 23.
German government spokesman Bela Anda, while reaffirming that Berlin had opposed the Iraq war, said of the reported remarks: "That's not a choice of words the federal government would use."
Guido Westerwelle, head of the liberal Free Democrats (FDP), welcomed the comments. "I share the essence of Horst Koehler's remarks to their full extent," he told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.
Comments
Comments are closed.