Hannover Messe: Scholz will tour with state ministers | NDR.de – News – Lower Saxony
Status: 05/17/2022 8:34 p.m
In the run-up to the Hanover Fair, there is apparently irritation about the participants in the traditional tour. According to a media report, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) does not want any CDU ministers to be present.
According to a report by the German Federal Chancellery, Deutsche Messe AG had “Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung” (HAZ) presented a list on which, among other things, Economics Minister Bernd Althusmann and Finance Minister Reinhold Hilbers (both CDU) were intended as participants. The Chancellery accepted the newspaper’s list, but did not approve it. On the other hand, a spokesman for the federal government told the German Press Agency (dpa) on request that the Chancellery did not yet have a final list of participants for the tour of the fair by Chancellor Scholz and António Costa, the Prime Minister of this year’s Hanover Fair partner country Portugal.
Government spokesman: State ministers are invited
“Nevertheless, as far as we know, the Lower Saxony state ministers are understandably invited to tour the fair,” said the government spokesman for the dpa. The HAZ had previously reported a letter from the Chancellor’s Office to Deutsche Messe AG, which said: “The Chancellor would like to refrain from participating in one of the listed state ministers.” The Chancellery justifies this. According to the report, Portugal has only planned federal ministers for the tour.
Althusmann attributes the procedure to the election campaign
Lower Saxony’s Economics Minister Bernd Althusmann (CDU) reacted to the newspaper report with outrage: “In my view, it is a serious affront to the state government – and in this case to two CDU ministers who are also members of the Supervisory Board of Messe AG.” That has never happened before. The actions of the Federal Chancellery are more than strange, “that can only be due to the election campaign,” said Althusmann, who will compete in the state elections in Lower Saxony on October 9 as the top candidate of the CDU against Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD).
The Hanover Fair is scheduled to take place from May 30th to June 2nd.
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