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Stress test in the Bundestag: how Olaf Scholz defends himself in the Cum-Ex affair

2020-09-09T18:30:15.507Z


Olaf Scholz has to ask questions about the Cum-Ex affair and the Wirecard scandal three times in the Bundestag. The SPD candidate for chancellor survived the day without scratches - but the affairs will haunt him.


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Olaf Scholz: "Thank you very much for the hint"

Photo: Clemens Bilan / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock

Olaf Scholz hurried briskly into session room 2,300, the way to the finance committee of the Bundestag is slowly becoming routine for him.

As early as March, the MPs asked the Federal Finance Minister and the SPD candidate for Chancellor about his role in the Cum-Ex scandal surrounding the Hamburg Warburg Bank, and then again in July.

On this Wednesday it's that time again - and it shows: Scholz won't get rid of the unpleasant topic anytime soon.

The Vice Chancellor had to ask himself questions and debates about the cum-ex scandal three times during the day.

First in the committee, then during a government survey and finally in a current hour in the Bundestag.

The focus is on an explosive question: What role did Scholz, as Hamburg's First Mayor, play in the decision of the local tax authorities not to reclaim millions of euros in wrongly reimbursed taxes from Warburg?

The finance minister, who has been nominated as his party's candidate for chancellor for a month, lets all allegations roll off on this day.

As hard as the opposition tries, Scholz is barely visibly under stress during the stress test in the Bundestag.

In fact, there is no evidence of Scholz's influence in the Cum-Ex affair.

But the pressure on him has increased since two further meetings with Warburg's co-boss Christian Olearius became known in 2016.

Initially, Scholz had only confirmed one meeting in 2017, he does not want to have any memories of the others.

These meetings were noted in Scholz's calendar, where they could have been found much earlier.

According to Olearius' diary, the latter also presented him with a kind of argumentation paper, and a few days later Scholz recommended the banker by telephone to send it to the then Finance Senator Peter Tschentscher without comment.

Can you completely forget such conversations - with one of the most important men in Hamburg's economy?

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Left-wing politician Fabio De Masi

Photo: Jörg Carstensen / dpa

In the finance committee, Scholz insists on the memory gaps.

Participants in the meeting reported that he did not seem particularly contrite.

A mayor, so the argument goes, has many meetings, so you can forget some.

When asked, he remembers at least one conversation with the Hamburg SPD politician Alfons Pawelczyk zu Warburg.

Olearius had used this together with the former SPD budget politician Johannes Kahrs as a contact for Scholz.

But information about Olearius' own visits?

Nothing.

The opposition is not convinced.

"The gaps in memory start where it would have been interesting," said FDP finance politician Florian Toncar after the hearing.

He is now calling for an investigative committee in Hamburg, which has so far been blocked by the CDU.

"The answer that he could not remember anything is implausible in view of the importance of the talks," says Lisa Paus from the Greens.

She accuses Scholz of lying because of his testimony in July and demands that the secret minutes of that meeting be published. 

Left-wing politician Fabio De Masi recalls that Hamburg had to be warned several times by the Federal Ministry of Finance to collect funds from Warburg after all.

That this was the decision of a single tax officer alone could "not even be told to my grandmother".

De Masi, like the CSU politician Hans Michelbach, sees it as positive that Scholz in the committee promised a correction of the law in order to ensure the collection of profits from cum-ex fraud cases even after a tax limitation period.

With that, Scholz would correct a recently passed law from his house. 

"The CDU and CSU have graciously waived their question"

At lunchtime, Scholz has to go to the plenary hall.

Even in the 60-minute government survey, the finance minister stuck to his line of defense: There was no political intervention at Warburg, the decisions of the tax offices were made independently - and meetings with entrepreneurs were everyday life in politics.

Scholz looks relaxed.

With one hand in his pocket he is standing in the government bench and teasing his predecessor, Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble.

He takes the accusations of the MPs calmly: "Thank you for the question."

Scholz is not challenged at this meeting.

This is also due to the format in which the groups ask questions one after the other, sometimes on completely different topics.

The first questioner from the Union is not there right away, which Schäuble smugly comments: "The CDU and CSU have graciously given up their first question."

Even when Union MPs do have their say later, they do not ask the minister about the scandals but, among other things, about the financial situation of Berlin Airport BER.   

The AfD also seems to have little interest in the cum-ex affair.

The right-wing populists prefer to ask about corruption in Bulgaria and common bonds of the EU states.

Scholz takes up the latter with relish: "Thank you very much for pointing out the great program to rebuild the European economy."

In the SPD, too, people are currently calm.

It is clear that the other parties pounced on the candidate for chancellor, it is said.

But that won't get caught.

The Union also has the problem that it is under surveillance at least at Wirecard, but also at Cum-Ex.

In the election year one will have to live with the fact that the discussions keep coming up, say leading comrades.

But Scholz was prepared for the attacks.

"There is still the committee of inquiry"

Above all, the Greens and FDP as well as the left-wing finance politician De Masi are trying on this day to ask Scholz.

When De Masis asked why he told Olearius to send his letter to Tschentscher, Scholz replied that the official channels had been kept.

"And that's always right."

Even when the topic comes up on the Wirecard scandal, Scholz rejects any guilt - and refers to the auditors who should have been able to uncover the balance sheet fraud.

Scholz just wants to look ahead and explain what needs to be better regulated in the future.

But the opposition won't let him get away that easily.

"This question and answer session is not the best forum for clearing up the details of the scandal," says Green MP Danyal Bayaz.

"But there is still the committee of inquiry for that."

The Greens, FDP and Left had agreed on this body last week.

Even practitioners are amazed that such a controlled politician like Scholz seems to have at least lost instinct in the case of Warburg.

Politicians have to keep their distance from those involved in tax proceedings, says Thomas Eigenhaler, head of the German Tax Union.

"Such people can infect an entire ministry with their visit and expose them to protective hands."

And so it could be that the members of the Finance Committee will soon have further questions about Scholz's meeting with Olearius.

"I'm sure it wasn't the last time we talked about it," said De Masi after the meeting.

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Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2020-09-09

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