Heli flight with son on vacation: Lambrecht announces consequences on ZDF
Created: 05/12/2022, 13:09
By: Stephanie Munk
Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht defended her son's flight in the Bundeswehr helicopter as legal.
But there are open questions.
News ticker.
Scandal surrounding Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD)
?
Your son flew on vacation in the Bundeswehr helicopter.
The opposition has criticized
Lambrecht's behavior, and members of the traffic light coalition are defending it.
Did the son commit a crime?
If so, he may have violated the Criminal Code.
This
news ticker on the scandal surrounding Lambrecht's helicopter flight
is constantly updated.
Update from May 11, 3 p.m.:
Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht has expressed understanding for public criticism after her son flew in a government helicopter.
In the ZDF "Mittagsmagazin" the SPD politician announced on Wednesday that consequences would be drawn so that such allegations would no longer be possible in the future.
As a lawyer, minister and citizen, it is important to her that all of her decisions are "completely correct from a purely legal point of view".
“That is also the case here.
The costs have been taken over," said Lambrecht.
As a minister, she has very little time for private life.
"But as a mother, it's also important to me to keep in touch with my son," she said.
We ask for your understanding.
In the interview, the minister was also asked about a report in the daily newspaper
Welt
, according to which an inquiry on the subject was followed by an unofficial indication that Lambrecht reserved the right to take legal action against possible reporting.
Lambrecht said that she herself had had no contact.
"Well, I reserve the right to react accordingly to all statements made about me or my family if there are false allegations of fact."
Lambrecht's helicopter flight: the son of the Federal Minister of Defense could even face punishment
Update from May 11, 1:35 p.m
.: The son of Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht posted a photo from a Bundeswehr helicopter.
In doing so, he triggered a debate about his mother – and on top of that could possibly have made himself liable to prosecution.
The background is a possible violation of §109g of the Criminal Code (depiction of defense equipment that endangers security).
A misdemeanor can be punished with up to five years imprisonment - unless the responsible department has given its prior express consent.
Anyone who creates an illustration or description of a defense resource, a military installation or system or a military process or allows such an illustration or description to reach someone else and thereby knowingly endangers the security of the Federal Republic of Germany or the effectiveness of the troops, shall be punished with imprisonment of up to five years or a fine.
Section 109g Representation that poses a risk to security
Unanswered questions about Lambrecht's helicopter flight: the minister is launching a counterattack internally
First report
: Berlin – Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht has been in focus for days – since it became known that she had her son fly in the Bundeswehr helicopter to go on vacation with him.
New, open questions now arise.
As a reminder: It was April 13, war in Ukraine, state election campaign in Schleswig-Holstein and about 14 degrees on the holiday island of Sylt.
Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) and her 21-year-old son set off from Berlin with the Bundeswehr helicopter to northern Germany in a government helicopter.
Lambrecht wants to pay a visit to the Battalion Electronic Warfare 911 in Stadum.
The next day and after an overnight stay in a hotel, the car and bodyguards from the Federal Criminal Police Office set off for the nearby island of Sylt.
Lambrecht lets his son fly in the helicopter: Instagram picture triggers avalanche of criticism
When the details of the trip became known through a report by
Business Insider
, there was criticism from the opposition and malicious comments on the Internet about the keyword "helicopter mother".
The 21-year-old Lambrecht son published a photo of himself in the government helicopter on Instagram on April 15, with the comment "Happy Easter".
The Ministry of Defense defended the trip on Monday (May 9) as lawful: The minister had applied for a flight in a government helicopter and "accepted 100 percent of the costs in accordance with the guideline," said a spokesman in Berlin.
For Lambrecht's son, 100 percent of the price of a comparable scheduled flight was paid from private funds, as stipulated in the regulations.
Lambrecht lets his son fly in a helicopter: Apparently she hasn't paid for the flight yet
But according to a report by
Bild
, that seems to be different: According to this, the minister has not yet paid for the flight.
"The cost statement is currently being prepared.
This is an administrative process that is expected to take some time.
Therefore, no information can currently be given on the amount of the costs incurred," the newspaper quoted from a response from the ministry.
The
Ministry also did not want to provide any information on the amount of the reimbursement to
Der Spiegel .
Internally, according to a report by
Der Spiegel
, Christine Lambrecht reacted quite defiantly to the irritation surrounding the helicopter flight.
In an internal meeting of the SPD parliamentary group on Tuesday (May 10), she spontaneously took a stand and spoke of a "campaign" against her.
Lambrecht lets his son fly in a helicopter: the minister complains about the campaign against her
The public debate about her is rarely about content, but mostly against her as a person, Lambrecht complained.
Sometimes her unsuitable shoes were criticized during a visit to the troops, now a flight.
Background: The 56-year-old wore heel protectors during a visit by German soldiers in Mali, although wearing sturdy shoes is mandatory.
Several media reported about it.
There was applause for Lambrecht's statement in the internal meeting, writes
Der Spiegel
, citing the statements of participants.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz was not in the room when she made her statements - but he is said to have put his hand on the defense minister's shoulder beforehand.
Lambrecht lets his son fly in a helicopter: he has been there several times on business trips
The
Bild
newspaper reported that Lambrecht took her son with her on “a total of seven trips abroad” when she was Minister of Justice.
Accordingly, the Ministry of Justice confirmed trips to Slovenia, Helsinki, Liechtenstein, Lisbon, Luxembourg, Paris and Prague.
The costs were always paid privately.
As a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense said on request, the flight to Schleswig-Holstein in April was "the only flight taken by a family member" during Lambrecht's time as head of department there.
Lambrecht lets son fly in a helicopter: Strack-Zimmermann defends Lambrecht
The chairwoman of the Defense Committee in the Bundestag, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, has defended Lambrecht against criticism.
The minister is doing a "committed job," said the FDP politician on Deutschlandfunk.
"I am sure that the minister is aware that that was not clever." However, the yardstick must be whether she is doing her job well.
Strack-Zimmermann, it is part of the job for top politicians to be under special observation.
Nevertheless, one should not turn "every photo into a nightmare".
"Then you drop some cup and then you have the cocoa on your pants and then someone accuses you of having wet your pants."
Lambrecht lets his son fly in a helicopter: Stegner calls criticism "cheap"
SPD politician Ralf Stegner dismissed the criticism of the defense minister as an election campaign maneuver by the Union.
Lambrecht complied with the regulations when taking her son, Stegner said on Deutschlandfunk on Wednesday.
The attempt to make a scandal out of it before the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia is "cheap" and "very transparent".
The opposition has nothing else to do "than talk about their fingernails or high heels" instead of what Union Lambrecht left in office, Stegner said.
The result of this are planes that are not airworthy and ships that cannot go to sea.
Lambrecht must now fix that.
The parliamentary director of the SPD parliamentary group, Katja Mast, also defended Lambrecht against criticism.
The Minister of Defense does her job "very dedicated, serious and assertive".
There are bigger issues to get excited about, she said.
Lambrecht lets his son fly in a helicopter: SPD politician Roth still sees open questions
The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Bundestag, Michael Roth, sees a need for clarification on the helicopter flight from Lambrecht (SPD) with her son.
"There are still a few open questions, and they will have to be clarified," said the SPD politician on Wednesday on RTL / ntv "early start".
The ministry and the minister themselves would certainly make their contribution to this.
However, demands for resignation are not appropriate: "If someone behaves in accordance with the rules, then that is no reason for resignation."
(smu/afp/dpa)
