Olaf Scholz is once again under pressure because of the-Ex scandal. According to a report, an e-mail could put the chancellor in need of explanation.
Munich/Berlin - Olaf Scholz (SPD) just can't get rid of the matter. While the Chancellor negotiated a preliminary compromise with the states at the federal-state summit on refugees, new details of the-Ex scandal are becoming public.
-Ex scandal: Surfaced e-mail increases pressure on Chancellor Olaf Scholz
In the scandal in question, financial actors around the Hamburg banker Christian Olearius are said to have cheated the German state out of billions. For example, the Warburg Bank of co-owner Olearius had 169 million euros in taxes reimbursed by the Hamburg tax office, which had never been paid as taxes before.
Later, Olearius allegedly exerted political influence so that millions of the tax debt would become statute-barred. In this context, the questions arise: What did Scholz know? Was the current Federal Chancellor and then Mayor of Hamburg even involved in this political influence? Der Spiegel is now reporting on an e-mail that could be sensitive for the German head of government.
Chancellor: Olaf Scholz of the SPD. © IMAGO/M. Popov
-Ex scandal: Surfaced e-mail increases pressure on Chancellor Olaf Scholz
To put this into perspective, the now 64-year-old Scholz was First Mayor of Hamburg between March 2011 and March 2018. A parliamentary committee of inquiry of the Hamburg parliament had in turn been able to determine that the SPD politician Olearius met three times between 2016 and 2017. Scholz had initially stated that they had only met once.
An e-mail now undermines "the already tarnished credibility of the chancellor," writes Der Spiegel. Specifically, the e-mail in question is said to be dated June 30, 2020. An official in the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) is said to have sent it to a colleague, and the e-mail is said to have served to prepare for an upcoming meeting of the Finance Committee in the Bundestag in July of the same year. In that very meeting, Scholz, who was then Federal Minister of Finance, was questioned about his alleged contacts with Olearius.
-Ex scandal: Olaf Scholz and Christian Olearius probably met several times
According to Der Spiegel, two meetings between the two took place in the fall of 2016, "shortly before the authorities in Hamburg decided not to reclaim any tax credits from Warburg for the time being." In September 2020, it was only after revelations by journalists himself that the current chancellor admitted that there had been not one, but three meetings with the banker. He had only now had his calendar evaluated, he explained at the time.
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And he explained that he had no real memories of any conversations with Olearius. According to Der Spiegel, "the question now arises more urgently than before as to whether Scholz has always told the whole truth about his contacts with Olearius." The e-mail of 30 June 2020 shows "that Scholz is already receiving detailed information for the July meeting of the Finance Committee. (...) Did he know at that point that there was more than one meeting?"
-Ex scandal: Critic confronts Olaf Scholz with allegations
Financial expert Fabio De Masi today accuses Scholz of having "deliberately concealed" the two appointments in 2016 with Olearius at the Finance Committee meeting in July 2020. The then Left Party MP De Masi had already asked Scholz in March 2020 in the Finance Committee for further appointments with Olearius. Der Spiegel refers to the minutes of that meeting, according to which the minister did not give a concrete answer to possible meetings at the time. (pm)
