The Secretary of State for Economic Affairs is accused of family ties – it’s about the new Dena boss, but also about a US environmental lobbyist.
Politicians from the traffic light partner FDP and from the opposition have appealed to Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) to provide clarification on personal details in his area of responsibility.
“Robert Habeck must immediately ensure transparent structures in his ministry, even if this affects the ministry’s advice. If this does not happen, the chancellery must intervene,” said FDP politician Christopher Vogt of “Bild”. The CDU politician Julia Klöckner called on Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) in the newspaper to clarify the question “whether the mammoth energy transition project is in the interests of a group of friends and foreign lobbyists”.
New Dena boss was Graichen’s best man
In addition to family ties in Habeck’s ministry and the environmental institutes commissioned by him, the main focus is that his State Secretary Patrick Graichen was involved in the selection of the new managing director of the German Energy Agency (Dena), Michael Schäfer, although he is his best man. Habeck and Graichen meanwhile refer to this as a mistake.
Another ambiguity that Vogt and Klöckner refer to refers to the alleged role played by US environmental lobbyist Hal Harvey in Graichen’s network and the ministry’s climate policy. Harvey sits on the board of directors of Graichen’s former employer, the think tank Agora Energiewende.
Left: Resignation would be appropriate
The left-wing parliamentary group calls for personnel consequences in the Graichen case and clarification of further private ties in the personnel policy of green ministries. “Probably a resignation would be appropriate,” said the left parliamentary group leader Amira Mohamed Ali of the “Augsburger Allgemeine”.
The fact that Graichen did not disclose that “the ultimately successful applicant was his best man is no small matter and should have personal consequences,” she said. “The gathering of family members and friends in the Ministry of Economy and in the upstream areas raises questions.”
Union politicians had already brought a committee of inquiry into play yesterday because of the ambiguities. On Wednesday, the economic committee in the Bundestag should first discuss the topic.
Source: Stern
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