The conservative Armin Laschet, favorite to succeed Angela Merkel after the legislative elections in September, admitted Friday "
errors
" in writing a book after accusations of plagiarism, as recently his environmental rival.
"There are obviously mistakes for which I bear responsibility"
, said Armin Laschet, 60, admitted having used the contents of at least one author without citing a source in this book dates back to 2009.
"I want to apologize,
”he continued, promising to quickly request“
an audit of the whole book ”
to determine if there were any other similar errors.
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The apology follows a tweet on Friday from the author in question, Karsten Weitzenegger, an expert in development aid, in which he indicated that he had been informed by a
German
"plagiarism hunter" that he
had been cited without a source in this report. book by Armin Laschet. The author reacted with humor, saying he was delighted
that "politicians are interested in science, which is not always necessarily the case with Mr. Laschet
.
"
The case comes at a time when Armin Laschet, already unpopular in Germany, is under fire from critics, especially after being filmed hilariously while in the foreground, the head of state Frank-Walter Steinmeier paid tribute to the victims of the devastating floods in mid-July.
The candidate had also apologized.
Since then the conservatives, who bring together the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and their Bavarian ally CSU, have lost a few points in the polls of intention to vote, even if they remain in the lead and Mr. Laschet thus keeps all his chances of reaching the supreme position.
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In a poll for
RTL
and
NTV
televisions
published on Friday, the CDU / CSU lost 2 points to 28% of voting intentions while the Greens, the main competitor, rose by 1 point to 21%. Annalena Baerbock, environmental candidate for the chancellery, was also caught in the fault of plagiarism in early July in a campaign book "
Jetzt
". A time at the top of the polls to replace Angela Merkel at the end of the legislative elections of September 26, the 40-year-old environmentalist committed several blunders which damaged her credibility. In particular, she failed to declare several thousand euros in bonuses paid by her party to the German Parliament and had to correct inaccuracies on her CV.