“Nothing happened,” Chancellor Olaf Solz claimed, testifying today before the Hamburg parliament’s investigative committee looking into his possible involvement in the “Cum-Ex” scandal. Mr Solz, who at the time of the multi-billion euro tax evasion scandal was Mayor/Governor of the Hanseatic city, denied any involvement while insisting he did not remember details of the case.
The president of the Commission, MP of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) Richard Zeelmacher even asked the chancellor if he would agree to undergo hypnosis, “perhaps this is how the lost memories come to the surface”. “Your question reveals the comical level we have reached,” replied Olaf Solz, who testified today for more than three hours.
The subject of the investigation is his meetings with the bankers of Hamburg’s Warburg Bank, which is at the center of the scandal. Mr Solz has admitted meeting Christian Olearius and Max Warburg three times in 2016 and 2017, but he no longer remembers the content of those meetings, he claims. “I like to talk and I know I’m acting legally. That goes for all the discussions I’ve had,” he told the Commission.
According to Mr. Olearius, after the first meeting, Olaf Solz recommended that he write to the then Finance Senator and current Mayor of Hamburg, Peter Chencher.
The chancellor repeated today in many ways his constant statement that “there was nothing”, referring among other things to Mr. Olearius’ diary entries regarding the meetings with Mr. Soltz. “He asks, he listens, he doesn’t express an opinion, he doesn’t reveal anything about what he thinks and if and how he intends to act. I understand him, I don’t want to pressure him or embarrass him in any way,” the banker wrote.
In a later entry, he notes that he invited the two Hamburg SPD officials Johannes Kars and Alfred Pavelchiuk to lunch “in order to thank them for their help”. Again, Mr. Soltz insisted there was no sign of political interference in the tax process. As far as his meetings with bankers are concerned, as he said, they are about forming an opinion and not some other relationship. “I’m not making any commitments and I’m not promising anything. I’m extremely reserved,” the chancellor said.
The president of the Commission described Olaf Solz’s statements as “unbelievable” and reserved to call him again for testimony. Earlier CDU leader Friedrich Merz said he did not believe a word the chancellor said.
Source: AMPE
Source: Capital
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