Jens Spahn was recently criticized for the rapid test debacle.
Now there is again bad press for the Minister of Health.
It's about his property purchases.
Berlin - Jens Spahn is faced with a serious allegation.
This is not about his work as Federal Minister of Health and his work in dealing with the corona pandemic.
During the day, Spahn was still available to answer questions from the Bundestag about the rapid test debacle, and in the evening an unpleasant report followed.
The CDU politician is said to have had journalists researched.
The Berliner
Tagesspiegel
writes that its lawyers requested information from the Schöneberg district court in December last year about journalists who had researched Spahn's real estate.
The land registry is assigned to the district court and administers the files on the minister's private real estate - including the purchase agreements.
Research on journalists?
Spahn rejects allegations
According to the letter, Spahn's lawyers are asking the court to hand over all correspondence with the
Tagesspiegel
as well as "any other press correspondence" with the associated official response letters.
Spahn specifically wanted to know the names of press representatives who had asked about his two Schöneberg apartments and the villa in Dahlem he had acquired last year.
Research is said to have been carried out through journalists from
Spiegel
,
Bild
,
Stern
and
Tagesspiegel
,
among others
.
According to the documents, the district court complied with the demands, the report said.
Spahn vehemently rejects the allegations.
His lawyer Christian-Oliver Moser told the
Tagesspiegel
that it was "no investigation".
Spahn only makes use of his right as the owner, "which third parties and for what reason" had access to the land register.
Researched journalists?
Jens Spahn charges the land registry
Spahn *, for his part, made allegations against the land registry.
Spahn's spokesman Hanno Kautz said of the process that the land registry may have violated the land registry and the provisions of the EU General Data Protection Regulation by allowing journalists to see it.
A review is not excluded.
Clear criticism came from journalists' associations.
As a member of the federal government, which like no other head of department is in the public eye because of the corona pandemic *, Spahn has to put up with media research, said the head of the German Journalists' Association (DJV), Frank Überall.
He spoke of a "urgent authority" and a minister "who is trying hard to keep private real estate deals in the seven-figure range under the covers".
Journalists' associations sharply criticize Jens Spahn: researching press representatives "disturbing"
It was only before publication, but not at the research stage, that editors decided whether the public interest exceeded privacy.
"Then, but only then, can a person concerned put media lawyers on the march," said the DJV chairman.
Tina Groll, federal chairwoman of the German Union of Journalists, called it "disturbing" that Spahn * apparently had press representatives investigated.
"A federal minister should respect and respect the freedom of the press and the task of the press to report critically." Criticism also rained for Spahn because of the messed up Corona vaccination start *.
Jens Spahn does not want to read private matters in public
The background to this is Spahn's endeavor that private matters are not discussed in public.
As the
Tagesspiegel
reported, the CDU * Vice-President is said to have bought an apartment from the former pharmaceutical manager Markus Leyck Dieken.
Spahn later put him at the head of the majority federally owned Gematik GmbH, which is supposed to accelerate digitization in the healthcare sector.
The result was massive criticism from all four opposition factions in the Bundestag *.
* Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.
(mt / afp)