2024-07-19 07:56:20
In the so-called subsidy affair, the Union is putting further pressure on Education Minister Stark-Watzinger. The parliamentary group has now sent the government a long list of questions.
In the so-called funding affair, the Union faction in the Bundestag has submitted an extensive catalogue of 100 questions to the federal government. The main focus is on the role of Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger. The Union wants to know whether, when and how the FDP politician was involved in the Research Ministry’s handling of an open letter from university professors on the Middle East conflict. The ARD capital studio was the first to report on the faction’s inquiry.
In the letter in May, the lecturers had criticised the clearing of a camp of pro-Palestinian demonstrators at the Free University of Berlin. This in turn triggered criticism from Stark-Watzinger. In her opinion, the letter “ignores the terror of Hamas”.
Later, emails were made public which showed that someone at a high level in the ministry had asked for an investigation into the extent to which statements in the protest letter from the Berlin university professors were relevant under criminal law and whether the ministry could cut funding as a consequence. The action 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 commissioned the underlying audit. The minister had stressed that she herself had not commissioned the audit and had not wanted to do so.
The Union criticizes the fact that the FDP politician did not answer several questions on the subject during an appearance in the Bundestag’s Education Committee a good two weeks ago. In its list of questions, the parliamentary group now wants to know who at the upper level of the ministry communicated with whom and when about the lecturers’ letter and how orders and instructions are given there.
“The truth must finally be put on the table,” said the education policy spokesman for the Union faction, Thomas Jarzombek (CDU). According to the faction, the federal government has been given a deadline of July 25 to answer the questions.