For election campaigns in Hessen
Union shoots against sick Faeser
09/06/2023 1:07 p.m
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The Union still wants to ask Interior Minister Faeser about the dismissal of ex-BSI boss Schönbohm. However, she is absent from the interior committee on sick leave, but gives an interview in Hesse. An affront, finds party leader Merz and suspects calculation behind it.
Union faction leader Friedrich Merz has criticized Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser for her absence from a meeting of the Bundestag Interior Committee. “Thank you for being here this morning, Ms. Faeser,” Merz said smugly in the general debate in the Bundestag in the direction of the SPD politician. “After you called in sick yesterday and gave dpa interviews in Wiesbaden.” The minister canceled her participation in a committee meeting on Tuesday – which met with criticism in the Union because Faeser gave an interview to the German Press Agency.
Her ministry now referred to “an important doctor’s appointment that was in her home town as a result of her surviving corona infection. Because she could not be in Berlin yesterday morning for this reason, she was excused in the German Bundestag”. Faeser is the top candidate of the Social Democrats in the Hesse election.
The Union continues to insist on clarification by Faeser because of the controversial dismissal of cyber security chief Arne Schönbohm. According to a report by “Welt”, the parliamentary group wants to call for another special session of the Bundestag’s interior committee. The domestic political spokesman for the Union faction, Alexander Throm, told the newspaper that he assumed that the meeting would have to be scheduled for this week.
The left leader Janine Wissler also demanded that the interior minister explain herself. “The fact that Nancy Faeser called in sick for yesterday’s meeting of the Interior Committee in the Bundestag so that she did not have to answer critical questions, but at the same time was campaigning in Hesse, throws a devastating light on her and shakes her credibility,” she said.
Böhmermann reveals alleged contacts with Russia
The deposed ex-head of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) Schönbohm is demanding compensation from the federal government. According to his lawyer, his lawsuit is related to the action taken by the federal government against Schönbohm after the broadcast of an episode of the satirical program “ZDF Magazin Royale”. In it, Schönbohm was accused of being too close to an association with alleged contacts to Russian secret services. Then the federal government got involved. Faeser finally deposed Schönbohm as BSI President in November 2022.
He is now President of the Federal Academy for Public Administration. According to the “Welt” report, the special committee meeting requested by the Union should be about whether Faeser used information from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution to be able to recall Schönbohm.