“Serious allegations”
Scholz throws TU President Rauch out of Future Council
07.06.2024, 14:17
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Because of “unresolved” accusations of anti-Semitism, Chancellor Scholz is parting ways with TU President Rauch. She will no longer be a member of the SPD politician’s Future Council. Scholz has not commented on the 41-year-old’s refusal to resign.
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz has removed the President of the TU Berlin, Geraldine Rauch, from his circle of advisors. The Federal Chancellor has decided that she will no longer be a member of the so-called Future Council in the future, said deputy government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann. Rauch will not be reappointed to the body when the appointment of the members of this council is due to be extended.
“From the Chancellor’s point of view, the allegations against her are serious and have not yet been cleared up,” the spokeswoman said, justifying the move. She did not want to comment on Rauch’s intention to remain TU President.
Rauch is under criticism because she “liked” at least one anti-Semitic post on the platform X. On Thursday, she declared that she wanted to remain in office, although a narrow majority of the Academic Senate of the Technical University had voted in favor of her resignation. “I am not resigning,” the 41-year-old said.
The Future Council consists of scientists and company representatives and advises the federal government on issues such as key technologies, digitization, AI and other important topics. This also includes questions of social acceptance and ethical aspects. The members are each appointed for two years. The mathematician Rauch joined the committee in August 2022.
The Rauch case had increasingly become a political issue for Chancellor Scholz. CDU leader Friedrich Merz called for Rauch to resign as TU President. In the Bundestag debate on the Chancellor’s government statement, he also demanded that Scholz exclude the 41-year-old from the Future Council in the Federal Chancellery of the Federal Republic of Germany by the weekend at the latest.