In view of demands for his resignation and the many voices calling for answers to open questions, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is expected to appear before the “Cum-Ex” committee of the Hamburg Parliament for a second time today. As a witness, he is supposed to help clarify the question of whether he or other leading SPD politicians influenced the tax treatment of the Warburg Bank involved in the “Cum-Ex” scandal. Scholz denies that.
The chancellor’s second appearance was originally planned as the conclusion of the parliamentary committee of inquiry. The disclosure of the results of the investigation by the Cologne public prosecutor’s office, which is investigating the “Cum-Ex” transactions of the Warburg Bank, and press reports on previously kept secret minutes of a statement by Scholz in 2020 before the Finance Committee of the Bundestag, however, have given rise to many new questions.
The CDU and the left in the citizenship now want to expand the investigation and invite Scholz a third time. The chairman of the CDU in the committee, Richard Seelmaecker, called for the resignation of Scholz and his successor as mayor, Peter Tschentscher. The Federal Chancellor received support from his finance minister, Christian Lindner, who expressed his “full confidence” in him in the “Rheinische Post”.