Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP), Federal Minister for Education and Research, speaks after the government statement during the questioning of the federal government in the plenary of the German Bundestag. /image alliance, Hannes P Albert
Berlin – In the funding scandal, the Union’s parliamentary group in the Bundestag has presented the federal government with an extensive catalogue of 100 questions. It mainly concerns the role of Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger.
The Union wants to know whether, when and how the FDP politician will be involved in the handling of an open letter from university professors on the Middle East conflict in the Research Ministry (BMBF) was included. The group was the first to report the request DRA-Capital Studio Reports.
In the letter, the speakers criticized the evacuation of a camp for pro-Palestinian protesters at the Free University of Berlin in May. This in turn drew criticism from Stark-Watzinger, who said the letter “conceals the terror of Hamas.”
Emails later became known revealing that someone high up in the ministry had asked to examine to what extent the statements contained in the Berlin university professors’ protest letter were criminally relevant and whether the ministry could withdraw funding as a result. The move sparked protests.
Stark-Watzinger then parted ways with her State Secretary, Sabine Döring, and explained that the State Secretary responsible for the university department had initiated the underlying audit order. The minister emphasized that she herself had not commissioned the inspection and that she did not want to do so.
The union criticizes the fact that the FDP politician did not provide any information on the matter when she appeared before the Bundestag’s Education Committee a good two weeks ago.
In its catalogue of questions, the group now wants to know who, at the highest level of the ministry, communicated with whom and when about the teachers’ letter and how orders and instructions are given there.
“The truth must now finally be put on the table,” said the education policy spokesman for the Union parliamentary group, Thomas Jarzombek (CDU). According to the parliamentary group, the federal government had until July 25 to respond to the questions. © dpa/aerzteblatt.de