The whole affair shows the intrinsic links between business and the supposedly neutral state. Whether or not particular donations are technically legal is beside the point. It is obvious that only very rich people and corporations can give millions to parties and politicians, and they do not do it from the goodness of their hearts. This corruption strips away the facade of parliamentary democracy, the rule of law and one person, one vote. Party personnel and senior state employees expect material privileges and are in a position to favour those who provide them.
Bourgeois democracy is a fraud in a world where a handful of magnates can buy and sell governments.
A few scapegoats can be sacrificed, even some famous ones and some foreign ones, like deceased French president Mitterrand, but their mutual interest is to draw a veil over the whole affair as soon as possible. This means mobilising the labour movement to demand public scrutiny of the CDU's acco unts along with those of its affiliated organisations. The SPD, PDS and the trade unions must support these demands and make public all information that they gain from involvement in parliamentary or company investigations. Only in this way can public disgust at Kohl's crimes be turned into a working class offensive against the power of the banks and corporations which benefited so handsomely from his rule.