Unrest in Habeck’s ministry
State Secretary Philipp confronted with new allegations
5/21/2023 3:26 p.m
The professional and private ties between two State Secretaries at the moment do not cast a good light on the Federal Ministry of Economics. In addition to the Graichen case, Minister Habeck also has to examine events surrounding Udo Philipp. New criticism is being raised against the latter.
After the dismissal of the energy expert by Economics Minister Robert Habeck, there are now allegations against one of his other state secretaries. According to research by “Business Insider”, Udo Philipp, State Secretary responsible for startups, was involved in appointing a consultant in whose fund he had previously invested money. The Ministry confirmed: “The Advisory Board was appointed through a management proposal.” This means that Habeck signed a list of proposals from his own house. “As usual, the responsible official channel was involved, which includes State Secretary Philipp,” the ministry said.
According to “Business Insider” it’s about Sebastian Böhmer, one of the founders of First Momentum Ventures, an investment fund in which Philipp also has money. In August 2022, Habeck appointed him to the “Young Digital Economy” advisory board, which advises the minister on growth conditions for startups, among other things. The advisory board only has an advisory function, the ministry said. The cooperation is honorary, the members decide independently on which topics they give opinions.
It is unclear whether Philipp Habeck drew attention to the business connection between the two. The ministry said Philipp was invested in several funds – which he was allowed to do. However, this has no influence on the investment strategy of the fund or the business policy of the company. Meanwhile, Greens politician Habeck is under pressure to quickly present a successor to his ousted State Secretary Graichen.
Habeck had pulled the ripcord last week because Graichen had not sufficiently separated private and professional matters. Now there are also allegations of plagiarism against the economist. He asked the University of Heidelberg to review his doctoral thesis, Graichen told the “Bild am Sonntag” on the suspicion of violating the citation rules. However, he rejected an accusation of plagiarism. The points at issue all came from the historical reference to the actual scientific core topic of the work entitled “Municipal energy policy and the environmental movement”.
“In my opinion, the scientific core of the work is not affected by the criticism expressed,” argued Graichen. Plagiarism expert Jochen Zenthöfer told the newspaper: “There are 30 plagiarism fragments, some of which consist of several sentences.” They came from two essays by the environmental sociologist Karl-Werner Brand. It is generally quoted, “but only in very few places, at least 30 references are missing”.