Graichen and Habeck in committee
Image: dpa
The best man affair in the Ministry of Economics could expand. Did Habeck’s confidant Graichen deceive others by using the ‘Sie’ for applicants he knew well?
Seldom have so many eyes focused on a committee meeting of the Bundestag as on Wednesday. Actually, it would have been two sessions. In one, the Energy and Climate Committee wanted to ask Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) about his personnel policy. In the other, the Economic Committee wanted to know from Habeck’s criticized State Secretary Patrick Graichen (also Greens), why he had recommended his best man Michael Schäfer (also Greens) for the top post of the German Energy Agency (DENA) as part of a selection committee.
Julia Loehr
Business correspondent in Berlin.
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However, the opposition’s hope of being able to uncover contradictions in the statements made by the two by means of separate surveys was not fulfilled. With the votes of the governing parties, two sessions became one session – which then, for reasons of space, was not held in the Paul-Löbe-Haus as usual, but in the SPD parliamentary group hall.