Alleged Putin trip by Scholz: SPD accuses CDU of fake news

Leading SPD politicians have accused CDU politician Roderich Kiesewetter of spreading false information about an allegedly planned meeting between Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Russian President Vladimir Putin before the federal election. SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich described this as “fictional”. SPD General Secretary Matthias Miersch said the claim was “infamous and perfidious.” Both demanded that the CDU member of the Bundestag withdraw his statement on Platform X and apologize to Scholz.

Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit announced legal action against Kiesewetter. “It’s a slander what MP Kiesewetter is doing,” he told the Editorial Network Germany (RND). “There are no considerations for such a trip and it would make no sense at all.” The federal government will also defend itself legally: “Legal steps are currently being prepared.”

Kiesewetter wrote on X on Saturday: “We have to prepare for an election campaign surprise.” There are increasing indications that “Chancellor Scholz is traveling to Moscow or meeting Putin before February 23rd.” When asked by the DPA news agency on Sunday, he did not want to comment on the reactions to this from the Chancellery and the SPD.

At the presentation of SPD election posters in Berlin, Miersch said that he had called on CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann to “immediately” get Kiesewetter to delete the message and apologize. Kiesewetter’s statement was a “clear violation” of the fairness agreement that all parties represented in the Bundestag except the AfD and BSW agreed to shortly before Christmas.

Mützenich also reminded the CDU of the fairness agreement. “With such fictitious claims, key representatives of the CDU/CSU faction are obviously trying to construct arguments against Olaf Scholz’s sensible foreign policy course,” he told the German Press Agency. “Friedrich Merz, as parliamentary group leader, should quickly ensure that Kiesewetter retracts his false statements and publicly apologizes to the Chancellor.”

In addition, the leadership of the Union must examine whether Mr. Kiesewetter can remain a member of the Parliamentary Control Committee for the Secret Services for longer, added Mützenich. “After all, highly confidential questions that are also relevant to foreign policy are clarified here.”

In November, Scholz spoke to Putin on the phone for the first time in almost two years, causing anger in Ukraine and also among Eastern European NATO partners. The Chancellor was last in Moscow a few days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.