Germany’s Habeck Defends Top Energy Official Accused of Nepotism

Kamil Kowalcze
·3 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said he’s standing by a deputy accused of nepotism even as he admitted the episode had been a damaging distraction for the government.

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Opposition lawmakers have called for Patrick Graichen, an economy ministry state secretary on whom Habeck relies heavily in setting energy policy, to be removed from his post after it emerged that he was on a committee that appointed the best man at his wedding, Michael Schaefer, as head of Germany’s Dena Energy Agency.

In a series of tweets Wednesday, Graichen said that he should have withdrawn from the committee as soon as Schaefer applied for the job, while denying that he conferred any advantage on his long-term friend or any other candidate.

“If I try to explain my behavior, it was that I was and am exclusively interested in ensuring that the German Energy Agency has excellent management,” Graichen wrote.

“I thought that it was enough for my vote not to be decisive and for me to hold back in the evaluation of his person in the committee,” he added. “That was wrong and I regret this mistake very much.”

Habeck and Graichen were grilled about the episode earlier Wednesday by Bundestag lawmakers. Habeck, a member of the Greens party who is also the vice chancellor, told reporters that he has decided Graichen’s error does not mean he should be fired.

The appointment process for the head of the Dena energy agency will be repeated, Habeck added.

“Of course, this does not undo the mistake, but it does allow a new Dena management team to work free of accusations of bias,” he told lawmakers, according to his opening statement published by the economy ministry.

While Graichen looks likely to ride out the episode, it has raised questions about Habeck’s judgment and shone a light on a tight-knit group of energy policy experts appointed to his ministry, many of whom are also members of the Greens.

When they joined Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s ruling coalition, the Greens vowed to promote transparent government but the nepotism allegations appear to have damaged the party in the polls ahead of Sunday’s regional election in the city state of Bremen.

According to an Insa poll for Bild newspaper published Tuesday, support for the Greens was on 12%, compared with the 17% they scored in the last Bremen election in 2019.

The Social Democrats, who run the western German city in a coalition with the Greens and the Left party, were on 30%, up from 25%, and the opposition conservative CDU on 28%, compared with 27% in 2019.

“Minister Habeck and his state secretary Graichen have missed a chance today to clear this up,” Julia Kloeckner, a CDU spokeswoman on economic policy in the Bundestag in Berlin, said in a video statement on Twitter.

“Because what is happening in the economy ministry really leaves you speechless,” she said, reiterating a call for Graichen to be let go.

--With assistance from Petra Sorge.

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