Agency Report
Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) has accused an opposition conservative politician of spreading false information about a supposed meeting planned between Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Russian President Vladimir Putin before February’s elections.
Chancellor Scholz has sharply dismissed those speculations. “This is a false claim, you must not do such a thing, it is profoundly indecent, there is no basis for it,” he said in Berlin on Sunday. “I believe honest people are allowed to be outraged when false claims are being used.”
SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich described the claim by Roderich Kiesewetter of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) as “pure fabrication.”
SPD General Secretary Matthias Miersch said the claim was “vicious and sneaky.” Both demanded that the CDU member of the German lower house, or Bundestag, retract his statement on the platform X and apologize to Scholz.
Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit announced legal action against Kiesewetter.
He told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) German media group that Kieswetter’s comments amounted to “slander.”
Hebestreit added that there were no plans for such a trip, stating, “It would make no sense at all.”
“Legal steps are currently being prepared,” the spokesman added.
Kiesewetter posts about ‘election campaign surprise’
Kiesewetter wrote on X on Saturday, “We must prepare for an election campaign surprise.”
He suggested that there were indications that “Chancellor Scholz will travel to Moscow or meet Putin before February 23,” the date of the Bundestag election.
Kiesewetter has so far declined to comment on the reactions.
Miersch: “A clear violation of the fairness agreement”
At the presentation of SPD election posters in Berlin, Miersch said he had urged CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann to “immediately” persuade Kiesewetter to delete the message and apologize.
Kiesewetter’s statement was a “clear violation” of the fairness agreement, which all parties represented in the Bundestag except the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and upstart Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) agreed upon shortly before Christmas.
Mützenich calls on CDU leader to intervene
Mützenich also reminded the CDU of the fairness agreement. He told dpa, “With such pure fabrications, key representatives of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group are evidently trying to construct arguments against the sensible foreign policy course of Olaf Scholz.”
In federal elections and in the Bundestag, the CDU is in an alliance with its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU).
He also called on the CDU/CSU candidate for chancellor to intervene. “Friedrich Merz should urgently ensure that Kiesewetter retracts his false statements and publicly apologizes to the chancellor,” Mützenich said.
Membership in committee called into question
Furthermore, the leadership of the CDU/CSU bloc must examine whether Kiesewetter can remain a member of the parliamentary control committee for the intelligence services, Mützenich added. “After all, highly confidential and also questions relating to foreign policy are settled here.”
Scholz spoke with Putin on the phone in November for the first time in nearly two years, causing displeasure in Ukraine and among Eastern European NATO partners.
The last time the chancellor visited Moscow was just days before the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
By Michael Fischer
