Dresden – The possible corruption scandal surrounding opaque subsidy payments is having its first consequences in terms of personnel. Minister of Social Affairs Petra Köpping (64, SPD) fired her State Secretary Sebastian Vogel (44, SPD) on Wednesday afternoon!
“Today I asked the Prime Minister to put Mr. Sebastian Vogel on temporary retirement,” Köpping told journalists in Dresden, adding. However, Vogel’s Equal Opportunities and Integration division failed to ensure the legitimacy of the support programs at all stages.
Remarkable: the SPD politician also rejected “the public allegations of political as well as personal advantages.”
A contradiction, because if there were no political or personal misconduct, then why did Vogel have to go. Questions, however, were not allowed in Köpping’s statement in the foyer of her ministry.
Social Affairs Minister Petra Köpping on Wednesday afternoon in Dresden to journalists
Photo: Sebastian Kahnert/dpa
Vogel, who has also been head of the Saxon Ministry of Social Affairs since 2021, is at the center of criticism of a previously unpublished report by the state audit office. In it, the auditors found “personal relationships between the decision-makers and the recipients of the funds”, some of which were very close, and concluded that there may be “structures at risk of corruption”.
For example, the Ministry of Social Affairs supported the association “Netzwerk Courage Sachsen” with considerable funds, the managing director of which is also Vogel’s partner. During his time as head of department in the Köpping Ministry, however, he made direct decisions about the financial donations to his partner’s club, which according to the Court of Auditors violated the so-called “ban on participation”, which even informed the public prosecutor’s office.
Minister under pressure
The affair comes at a bad time for Köpping and her SPD, after all, the 64-year-old was supposed to be officially presented on Friday as the top candidate for the Saxon Social Democrats. The party has now postponed the whole thing indefinitely.
From the SPD parliamentary group it was said that they first wanted to “clear up the Court of Auditors’ matter as quickly and transparently as possible”. The dismissal of Vogel should be a first liberation.
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Already on Thursday Köpping has the next opportunity. Then the parliament (at the request of the AfD parliamentary group) comes together for a special session. Topic: the audit report of the Court of Auditors and the allegations against your Ministry of Social Affairs.
It is eagerly awaited whether Köpping himself will comment. When asked by BILD, government spokesman Ralph Schreiber only said that “all members of the government generally take part in state parliament meetings”.
2023-08-30 22:03:30
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