Faux pas by the Green politician
Hofreiter sends an email to the wrong Olaf Scholz
September 29, 2023, 4:37 p.m
Listen to article
This audio version was artificially generated. More info | Send feedback
Green MP Hofreiter has been putting pressure on the Chancellery for faster military aid to Ukraine for months. Finally, Hofreiter called on the Chancellor in an incendiary letter to deliver Taurus cruise missiles. However, there was a mishap when sending.
The Green MP Anton Hofreiter, together with his SPD colleague Andreas Schwarz and the chairwoman of the Defense Committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, wrote an incendiary letter to the Chancellor. This is a call for the rapid delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine. According to one “Spiegel” report This ended up in the Chancellery, but with the wrong Olaf Scholz. Hofreiter’s employee accidentally sent the letter via email to the wrong address, it goes on to say.
Scholz’s namesake also works in the Chancellery, but as an IT expert. His official email address has a special addition that identifies him as an employee of the IT department. The “Spiegel” assumes that the autocompletion led to the mishap. The additional abbreviation could have slipped out of the address line – and the email ended up with the wrong Scholz.
Since the Chancellor’s office manager made a copy, the letter still reached the correct addressee and was therefore not sent. “The letter reached the Chancellor, I know that,” says Hofreiter. He takes the faux pas calmly, emphasizing that he would be satisfied if “if incorrect email addresses were our only problem with the Chancellery.” Since the early days of the war in Ukraine, Hofreiter Scholz has been pushing for more and faster military aid. The Chancellery is skeptical about the delivery of long-range Taurus weapons.