An opposition German MP claimed that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was going to Moscow before the elections. Scholz was outraged by this statement.
On Sunday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz denied an opposition MP’s claim that he was going to Moscow before the February elections. Scholz’s last visit to the Russian capital took place only a few days before the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, reported DPA, which TASR drew from.
Roderich Kiesewetter of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) wrote on the X social network that Germany must “prepare for a surprise in the election campaign”. He says there are more and more indications that Chancellor Scholz will travel to Moscow or meet Russian President Vladimir Putin even before February 23, that is, the day when early elections to the Bundestag are held in Germany.
The comments outraged him
“This is a false claim, you must not do something like that, it is deeply indecent, there is no reason for it,” Scholz responded on Sunday in Berlin. According to DPA, he was clearly outraged by the speculation.
Federal government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit had previously announced that legal action would be taken against Kiesewetter for his comments. Other members of Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) also accused the opposition MP of spreading false information. SPD parliamentary club leader Rolf Mützenich called the statements “fictitious”.
Scholz spoke with Putin on the phone for the first time in almost two years in November, which caused resentment in Kyiv as well as some Eastern European NATO member countries, DPA recalled. The chancellor defended this phone call with the head of the Kremlin and in recent weeks has repeatedly expressed his interest in making it again.
