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German president raises pressure on race row banker
Sarrazin has divided Germany with criticism of the country's large Muslim community, and outspoken remarks asserting that Jews have a particular genetic makeup, sparking calls from politicians that the central bank should fire him.
Speaking to N24 television late on Wednesday, Wulff hinted that this might be the best course of action, as a newspaper reported the bank's board had decided to sack Sarrazin, but that no official decision had yet been made.
“I think the board of the Bundesbank can do quite a lot so that this debate does not damage Germany -- in particular internationally,” said Wulff, who would have to approve Sarrazin's dismissal if the board voted for it.
The Berliner Zeitung daily said the bank's board was no longer debating whether to remove Sarrazin, but rather how to do so. The Bundesbank declined to comment on the report.
The central bank can only remove Sarrazin on the grounds of serious misconduct. Both the 65-year-old and the bank have repeatedly stated his comments on race and religion are not linked to his role at the Bundesbank.
Germany's Jewish community has been strongly critical of Sarrazin and a US Holocaust survivors' group said on Thursday it would lobby for Sarrazin to be removed from the Bundesbank.
“Holocaust survivors from Israel, Europe, Australia and the Americas will approach the German embassies in some two dozen countries to demand the immediate removal of Thilo Sarrazin,” said Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants.
“Sarrazin's racist comments have not only offended us as victims of Nazi Germany's brutalities, but are blackening the morally upright position of modern day Germany.”
The bank said on Wednesday it had put off a decision on Sarrazin's fate until at least Thursday.
Polls published on Wednesday showed Germans were divided on whether Sarrazin should remain at the bank.
A survey by pollster Emnid for N24 television showed 51 percent of respondents saw no need for the Bundesbank to fire board member Sarrazin, with 32 percent taking the opposite view. But another poll by YouGov for the Bild newspaper said 42 percent considered Sarrazin no longer acceptable for the job, with 34 percent seeing him as still acceptable and 25 percent undecided. Both surveys polled around 1,000 Germans.
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