Germany's former defence minister Franz Josef Jung quit the cabinet on Friday over a deadly bombing in Afghanistan, the day after claims of a cover-up took the scalp of the country's top general. Jung resigned as labour minister shortly after refusing to quit as pressure mounted over the bombing of two oil tanker lorries in the northern province of Kunduz in which dozens of civilians are believed to have died.
"After consideration ... I told Chancellor Merkel this morning that I was handing in my position as Federal Labour Minister," Jung told reporters in Berlin. "I am therefore taking the political responsibility for the internal information policy of the defence ministry regarding the events of September 4 in Kunduz," he added.
"With this action, I would like to help the federal government continue without hinderance its successful work and avert damage to the army," he added. Jung was defence minister at the time of the strike and insisted two days afterwards that "only Taliban terrorists" were killed.
However a confidential Nato report cited in late October said that the death toll varied between 17 and 142, and that local sources had said between 30 and 40 civilians died. Jung's position was further weakened after allegations that the defence ministry hushed up another report on civilian casualties and which suggested commanders on the ground did not adhere to the agreed rules of engagement. After chief of staff General Wolfgang Schneiderhan stepped down on Thursday, the clamour for Jung's head had grown even louder.
Merkel conspicuously failed to ride to her minister's aid, saying only that full transparency was crucial to win confidence in the Afghan mission, which polls show is unpopular in Germany, the third-largest provider of troops. Jung, not seen as a particularly close ally of the chancellor, had been moved to his new post after Merkel was re-elected two months ago. In a devastating front-page editorial entitled "Resign Please", the Financial Times Deutschland said: "Franz Josef Jung failed as defence minister and should resign from his position as labour minister."
"It would be no loss to the cabinet. There's nothing more to say," the paper added, leaving the rest of its front-page editorial column blank in a stark visual statement. "Why is Merkel hanging on to Jung?" asked the influential mass circulation Bild daily, whose initial revelation that a military report on the September strike had been suppressed prompted the scandal.