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Federal President Steinmeier in a speech in Bellevue
Photo:
Michael Kappeler / picture alliance
Frank-Walter Steinmeier apparently did not place much value on the presence of the Federal Cabinet during his keynote speech on October 28th.
Apart from Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) and Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP), no one from the cabinet was invited to speak, the President's Office and the relevant federal ministries told SPIEGEL.
The guest list was therefore deliberately filled with as few representatives of the federal government as possible in order to emphasize the social focus of the speech.
After Steinmeier's speech, in which he attuned the Germans to "rough years" and renunciation, several media outlets, including SPIEGEL, reported that the entire cabinet was "missing."
CDU leader Friedrich Merz had accused the government of not showing enough respect to the Federal President.
CDU General Secretary Mario Czaja told the "Tagesspiegel": "It is more than strange that neither the Chancellor and the President of the Bundestag, nor ministers in the Federal Cabinet, nor the faction and party leaders of the SPD and Greens considered it necessary to accept the invitation of the to follow the Federal President.«
This behavior is unprecedented and shows "that the representatives of the federal government obviously lack respect for the highest office in our state," said Czaja.
According to the Federal President, Chancellor Scholz had announced his absence weeks earlier in a personal conversation.
Lindner and Habeck initially agreed, but then canceled.
Lindner explained his absence with a working session in the Chancellery on energy security.
From the Ministry of Economics it was said that Habeck was prevented from attending.
As a result, Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens) should step in so that the cabinet is represented by at least one person, according to Berlin.
However, since the request to her came at short notice and the environment minister had appointments outside of Berlin on the day of the speech, Lemke also canceled.
Bundestag President Bärbel Bas (SPD) canceled her coming to Bellevue with reference to longer planned days off.
Vice President of the Bundestag Aydan Özoğuz (SPD) was intended as a replacement, but was also unable to attend at short notice for health reasons, according to a spokesman for the Bundestag.
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