Whether abroad, with Chancellor Scholz in the flood area or children in the zoo: Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) often had his own photographers or camera teams with him in the spring. At the request of the FDP, the State Chancellery now names the costs.
Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) – In the past legislative period, the Düsseldorf State Chancellery paid more than 300,000 euros for photographers and camera teams who accompanied Prime Ministers Armin Laschet (CDU) and Hendrik Wüst (CDU). This emerges from the government’s response to a small inquiry by the FDP in the state parliament. The “WAZ” had previously reported.
As can be seen from the government listing, Wüst’s appointments as prime minister were closely monitored during the election campaign between January and the end of May 2022. According to “WAZ”, almost 70,000 euros were spent on this – that was more than under Armin Laschet in a whole year. The government justifies this in its answer by saying that there were fewer appointments in 2020 and 2021 due to the corona pandemic.
The FDP MP Ralf Witzel sees it differently. He told the “WAZ” that the Federal Constitutional Court expects extreme restraint in tax-financed public relations work from members of the government in the pre-election period. “Prime Minister Wüst should check whether he has lived up to this claim in the end,” said Witzel. He suspects that the camera teams were mainly used for wild videos on social media.
According to the government’s list, recordings of libertines abroad were expensive – for example, a good 4,000 euros were collected for four days in Tel Aviv. When Wüst and Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) looked at the reconstruction after the flood in Bad Münstereifel in March, the State Chancellery paid 1,618 euros for photos. A meeting of Wüst with multiple children in the Gelsenkirchen Zoo was documented for 688 euros.
