Make-up artist on trips with me
Chancellery pays Merkel’s hairdresser’s bills
06/28/2023, 8:23 p.m
The chancellery is said to have encouraged the former chancellor to save money last year. Internal emails now show that Merkel continues to have the costs of her hair and make-up reimbursed from the federal budget. She also travels with a make-up artist at state expense.
The Federal Chancellery apparently continues to pay ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel a professional assistant for cosmetics and hairdressing, including for non-public appointments. According to the “Tagesspiegel”, this emerges from the correspondence between the Chancellery and Merkel’s office, which the newspaper has available. The documents were issued on the basis of the Freedom of Information Act (IFG).
According to this, a freelance “assistant” will continue to accompany the CDU politician regularly on trips. According to the website of the woman who works as a “hair and make-up artist”, “Chancellor Schröder” is said to have been one of her customers.
The Federal Chancellery explained that the costs for the services of a make-up artist “are incurred in connection with appointments for the performance of ongoing official duties”. Therefore, it is a question of “necessary expenditure” within the meaning of the Federal Budget Code, which the federal government is allowed to carry out to fulfill its tasks.
Merkel does not provide any information on “personal talks”.
According to the report, Merkel’s office also confirmed that the specialist is working at the expense of the federal budget. The former Chancellor did not want to give any information on how often Merkel uses the services. According to her office, no information is given on “non-public personal talks”. The Chancellor’s Office is also silent on the scope of previous cosmetic services and refers to “company and business secrets” of the commissioned make-up artist as justification.
According to the report, the businesswoman refused permission to publish her earnings. However, the hotel bills of the make-up artist, accompanied by Merkel, were discussed among the employees of the Chancellery. “Those are bargain prices,” a clerk commented on hotel costs of 505 euros per night by email and put a bad mood emoji next to it.
Taxpayers’ Association: Such costs should be paid privately
In November, the “Spiegel” reported that the Chancellery had warned Merkel to be economical. The magazine referred to a Treasury Department report to the Budget Committee. The lavish office equipment for Merkel with nine permanent positions and a company car had caused frowns on several occasions.
The President of the Taxpayers’ Association, Reiner Holznagel, criticized the “Tagesspiegel” for the fact that external appearances are worth so much money to the government: “It is difficult to convey to the taxpayers that they should also pay for politicians’ make-up artists and hairstylists,” he says Inquiry. Such costs would have to be “reduced to the bare minimum and, if in doubt, paid privately”.
The taxpayers’ association calculated that the traffic light government’s expenses for photographers, hairdressers and make-up artists will increase to around 1.5 million euros in 2022. According to the report, that is almost 80 percent more than in the previous year, when the grand coalition was still in power for the most part.