MUNICH, Germany, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- A top German conservative politician has come under fire after his chief of staff spied on a competitor's private life.
Michael Hoehenberger, the chief of staff of Bavarian State Premier Edmund Stoiber, a close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel and a top politician in her center-right conservative group, has had to resign over the weekend because he spied upon one of Stoiber's fiercest inner-party critics.
Hoehenberger snooped upon Gabriele Pauli, a local politician in Stoiber's CSU party. Pauli accused Hoehenberger of collecting information on her private life, including male companions and alleged alcohol abuse, according to a report on the Web site of Spiegel Online.
Stoiber accepted Hoehenberger's resignation, who said he was he was unable to carry on in his job amid the publicity over the issue.
Stoiber has denied he knew anything about the spy attack.
"It was the singular act of a staff member," Stoiber said in a newspaper interview with the Bild am Sonntag weekly. "I never would have permitted anything like that."
Stoiber narrowly missed the chancellorship in 2002 after losing the federal elections by a razor-thin margin to Gerhard Schroeder.
His state premier post is up for grabs in 2008, and the snoop victim has called on re-thinking Stoiber's nomination; inside the party, that move has little backing, however, as Stoiber is one of the most popular politicians the state of Bavaria has ever seen.
