“Disgusting Ambassador”
Schwerin attack on Melnyk boomerang
4/26/2022, 3:38 p.m
The Ukrainian ambassador accuses German politicians of their involvement in Russia. A Schwerin state secretary therefore bursts on Twitter. His insults put new pressure on Prime Minister Schwesig.
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Secretary of State for Justice Friedrich Straetmanns has triggered outrage with a verbal attack on the Ambassador of Ukraine in Germany, Andriy Melnyk, and has revived the debate about the behavior of the Schwerin state government towards Russia. “You are a bad to disgusting ambassador!” It said since deleted tweet of left-wing politicians.
The state secretary was responding to a message from the ambassador, in which he described Düsseldorf’s ex-mayor Thomas Geisel as a “God-poor Putin admirer”. The ex-OB was accused of having relativized the war crimes in the Ukrainian Bucha with a blog post. This post has since been deleted.
CDU demands dismissal of the state secretary
Straetmanns, who sat for the left in the German Bundestag from 2017 to 2021 and was appointed State Secretary in the Schwerin Ministry of Justice at the end of 2021, apologized. “The wording of the tweet was wrong and inappropriate and that’s why I deleted it,” said the lawyer.
The CDU member of parliament Sebastian Ehlers called on the social democratic Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig to dismiss the Straetmanns. Political moderation applies to civil servants. In the past, the Ukrainian ambassador Melnyk had repeatedly criticized the behavior of German politicians in dealing with Russia, including that of Schwesig.
At the center of the allegations against Schwesig is a controversial climate and environmental foundation that the state government founded last year to ensure the completion of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline despite the threat of US sanctions against companies involved. Unresolved financing and tax issues are putting increasing pressure on the state government. Nord Stream 2 was supposed to bring Russian gas under the Baltic Sea to Germany, bypassing Ukraine. In view of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the federal government had stopped the approval process for the pipeline project.