The SPD politician can apparently no longer remember the content of the discussions with Warburg co-owner Christian Olearius.
(Photo: dpa)
Chancellor Olaf Scholz was not invited to the special session of the Bundestag Finance Committee on Monday. This emerges from the letter of invitation from the committee chairman Alois Rainer (CSU), which is available to Reuters. On Thursday, however, the opposition Union made sure that the request by the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag that Scholz should be questioned about the so-called cum-ex deals is now on the agenda. If the SPD, Greens and FDP want to prevent this, they must vote against it on Monday. Also on the agenda is the motion that the minutes of the Scholz survey of July 1st be no longer classified as secret. The Chancellor and the SPD had demanded this.
There had previously been a debate among the leaders of the parliamentary groups as to whether Scholz should be invited to the special session on Monday at 8 p.m. – and who can decide on it. Representatives of the traffic light parties SPD, Greens and FDP did not want this because they see no new need for clarification. The Union, on the other hand, had made it clear that they wanted to question the Chancellor again in the panel.
As head of government in Hamburg, Scholz was in contact with Warburg co-owner Christian Olearius in 2016 and 2017. At that time, the question was whether the bank would have to pay a tax debt of 47 million euros as part of the Cum-Ex affair. The Cum-Ex affair is about a fraud scheme in which those involved had the state reimburse them for unpaid capital gains taxes.
According to his own statements, Scholz cannot remember the content of the discussions with Olearius. He points out that after several years of work in the Hamburg investigative committee there was no indication of any political influence on the tax authorities. By classifying his statements in the Finance Committee in the Bundestag as secret, the investigative committee in Hamburg was also unable to clarify whether there were any contradictions to the Scholz statements in the committee there. In Hamburg, the Greens had also commented critically on Scholz’s memory gaps.
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More: Scholz’s invitation to the finance committee becomes a political issue