The floundering right

NOTHING seems to be going right for Germany's opposition Christian Democrats and for Angela Merkel, who has been leading them for less than half a year. For one thing, they still cannot fathom how to handle Helmut Kohl, their long-time leader, who fell from public grace over illegal party slush-funds at the end of last year. For another, they are not yet convinced that Mrs Merkel is the right person to lead them back to power. And, just to keep the spotlight on the sleaze that has given the party such a bad name, this week a politician who has sometimes been mooted as an alternative to Mrs Merkel was himself dragged closer towards yet another scandal to do with party finance.