Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) – Baden-Württemberg’s Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann has described the affair surrounding Interior Minister Thomas Strobl and a lawyer’s letter he pierced as a “political burden”. “Of course it takes energy and time to deal with it,” said the Green politician on Tuesday after an external meeting of the green-black government in the Bebenhausen monastery near Tübingen. “Whether there’s something to it, that’s being determined.” If the SPD and FDP now want to set up a committee of inquiry, that is their right. Care will be taken to ensure that government action is not affected.
Kretschmann announced that he no longer wanted to comment on the allegations against Strobl. There are now three procedures that are running: the public prosecutor’s office, the data protection officer and the U-committee. “You won’t get any more comments from me.” He does not yet know the legal expertise of celebrity lawyer Christian Schertz, which Strobl has obtained, said the head of government.
The Green rejected allegations that he had reacted too slowly to the opinion of data protection officer Stefan Brink. The analysis commissioned by the SPD parliamentary group was received by the state ministry the Monday evening before last. Nevertheless, Kretschmann said last Tuesday afternoon that he did not have the report and could not say anything about it. He was irritated why SPD faction leader Andreas Stoch criticized him for it. “The telephone was invented and he can also text me.” He could not understand why a reaction from him was in such a hurry. “It went quite normally and correctly.”
CDU state chief and deputy head of government Strobl is under massive pressure because he forwarded a letter from a high-ranking police officer’s lawyer to a journalist. The official is being investigated for sexual harassment and has been suspended from work. The opposition accuses Strobl of having broken several laws by passing on the letter.
