German elections, D – 5: the hearing which candidate Olaf Scholz would have gone well – archyworldys

With the approach of the German legislative elections of September 26, The world keeps the campaign log. A daily update, with events, images, polls, clips, slogans, figures and keywords that allow you to follow and experience this electoral competition at the end of which Angela Merkel will leave power, after sixteen years in the chancellery.

Six days before the elections, this is an appointment that Olaf Scholz would have gone well. On Monday, the SPD candidate was heard by the Bundestag’s finance committee about the affair shaking the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), the service in charge of the fight against money laundering within the Federal Ministry of Finance, which ‘he leads.

Since 2020, the prosecution has been investigating the FIU, suspected of not having transmitted to justice reports concerning an alleged money laundering operation. Thursday, September 16, searches took place at the Ministry of Finance in Berlin. Olaf Scholz was annoyed.

Believing that the investigators could have asked “In writing” the information they were looking for, he had suggested that it could be a destabilization operation, in the middle of an election campaign. His opponents reacted immediately, accusing him of not respecting the independence of the judiciary. “When one’s own ministry is raided, telling the prosecution what should have been done is a process that is not generally used in populist states”, said the CDU-CSU candidate, Armin Laschet.

On Monday, Olaf Scholz tried to turn the situation to his advantage. First, by appearing himself at the hearing, when he had suggested that he would attend it remotely, by videoconference, from Baden-Württemberg where he had several campaign meetings on his agenda. . Then, by ensuring that, since his arrival at the Ministry of Finance in 2018, the resources of the FIU have been strengthened, in particular its staff, which has increased from 150 to 500 people.

These explanations did not convince members of the opposition in the finance committee. “Olaf Scholz has not done enough to fight money laundering: the chaos at the FIU has not been repaired and Germany continues to be a bog for money laundering. The political responsibility for this situation falls on him ”said environmentalist Lisa Paus. “There are such holes in the racket in Germany if you want to launder money that you can very easily commit criminal acts”, said Liberal MP Florian Toncar …

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