North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament and was thus receiving three salaries. The Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported on 19 December that CDU boss Angela Merkel had stripped her General Secretary of his powers. Close party colleagues demanded his resignation. On 20 December, Meyer announced that he would donate the amount in question (€81,800) to the charity SOS Children's Villages. After pressure from the party's rank and file, Meyer resigned as General Secretary on 22 December 2004. The reason for his resignation was that contrary to his description, the special payment was not a severance pay since Meyer returned to the company only after the CDU defeat at the North Rhine-Westphalian election in May 2000. This fact and the false information he provided to Angela Merkel made him untenable for the party. The received payments admitted by him and the announcement of a donation to SOS-Kinderdörfer were especially unable to pacify the party's branches in North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein, which were involved with their area's election campaigns. As a Member of Parliament, Meyer continued to receive the usual salary of €7,009 a month (€7,960 as of 2012, €8,252 as of 2013), plus the tax-free monthly expense allowance of €3,551 (€4,123 in 2013). Furthermore, he may reactivate his employment contract with the RWE energy company, from which he last drew an annual income of €112,381. On 23 December 2004, RWE announced the result of an internal investigation into the payments made to Meyer. It found that 160,000 of 250,000 Deutsche Mark were unjustified and had been made by VEW as a result of a "communication error". In a statement on 17 December, Meyer had described this payment as "legally correct", but also admitted "...I have nevertheless become aware of the fact that many people have a problem understanding that at that time I accepted this money, since I went back into the company...". Most recently, Meyer was employed as RWE's commercial director in the Arnsberg regional office. Personal life Meyer is married and has four daughters. He is separated from his wife and lives with his partner in Hamm. External links "German Opposition Deputy Resigns" Laurenz Meyer's website (in German) Biography at the website of the German Bundestag (in German) 1948 births Living people People from Salzkotten Members of the Bundestag for North Rhine-Westphalia Members of the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia Members of the Bundestag 2005–2009 Members of the Bundestag 2002–2005 Members of