Slammed by an Open-Door Policy

But the snowy-haired Fischer, who a few months ago was the toast of the tabloid press as he rushed about town with his 28-year-old girlfriend, faces a scandal that jeopardizes his career. He's accepted responsibility for a poorly regulated visa program that allowed thousands of illegal immigrants, many of them Eastern European prostitutes, to enter Germany.

Conservative politicians are calling for his resignation. The Green Party is in turmoil because of the blow to its reputation. The crisis also threatens Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's coalition government at a time when painful social reforms and a 12.6% unemployment rate prevent him from gaining a mandate to bolster his reelection chances in 2006.

"Even the conservatives are astonished at how quickly this scandal developed," said Olaf Gutting, a member of the opposition Christian Democratic Union. "I'm surprised how explosive this story is. Fischer and the Greens considered themselves super-moralists, but now that image is gone and they're looking for scapegoats."

Fischer acknowledged that he was "politically responsible" for mistakes at the Foreign Ministry but added that the matter had been exaggerated by the media and his opponents. A parliamentary investigation into the affair indicated that the Foreign Ministry was lax in responding to an increase in illegal immigration, even after complaints by law enforcement authorities and the issuing of visas to two suspected Chechen extremists.

Recent comments by Edmund Stoiber, leader of the conservative Christian Social Union, revealed the incendiary politics at play. He told the German media that if a parliamentary commission found that Fischer had failed to properly respond to the situation, he "would have to leave office. The public has a right to know what role [Fischer] played in the arrival of organized criminals from Eastern Europe."

The roots of the scandal began in 2000, when the Foreign Ministry loosened Germany's tough visa requirements at its embassies in Eastern Europe, most notably in Ukraine. German police warned that gangs exploited this relaxation by smuggling thousands of illegal immigrants into the country. Government records show that 217,000 visa applications were filed at the German Embassy in Ukraine in 2000. A year later, 330,000 applications were processed, and only 10% were rejected.