m…out of the bag

In the press conference after the presentation of the new German Government the Dutch journalist Rob Savelberg from “De Telegraaf” asked the question that should have been asked by his German colleagues. We are lucky to have it as a YouTube Video. It is in German. So, that is what has happened and what it is about.

Wolfgang Schäuble was involved in the finance scandal of the former Kohl Government where Karlheinz Schreiner an arms lobbyist was giving black money to the Christian Democrat’s secret account. Being asked by the Parlament Schäuble asserted that he “forgot” about 100.000 Marks (about 50.000 Euros) in an envelope he had received from Schreiber. Schäuble retreated from his position as the Chairman of the party, but made it back as Minister of Internal Affairs in the last period when the CDU/CSU won the election 2003. Being now announced as the new Minister of Finance it is only right to raise this issue again, what the Dutch Rob Savelberg did. Seemingly not prepared for such bravery, Chancellor Merkel’s only respond was that Schäuble had her full trust. Not being satisfied with the short answer the Dutch journalist asked again if she thinks that Schäuble can deal with money despite he was not able to remember 100 000 Marks in his drawer. That was raising laughter within the room. Merkel responded “Everything has been said”. Savelberg begged her pardon. Merkel repeated “If you want I can repeat my answer. Everything has been said”. Not understanding her taciturnity Savelberg was pointing out that being responsible for the finances of 85 Million people is not a minor issue. Merkel, Westerwelle and Seehofer looking away, the moderator moved on to the next question after that. Watch the YouTube Video above.

Former Chancellor Kohl admitted to have received 2.1 Million illegal money for the party but never revealed the names of the donators. After many qears of negotiations Karlheinz Schreiber is recently back from Canada to face charges for bribery as an arms dealer. Now, this affair seems to be forgotten while all the facts of the illigal party funds have not been revealed. Rob Savelberg drew a lot of attention in the Dutch and German media for his question due to the video. It was clicked more then 249.000 times in the first three days. See some German and Dutch media coverage here:

Welt Online interview with Rob Savelberg,

non varified translation of the Savelberg artikel into German

Savelberg article on “De Telegraaf” in Dutch