According to the German press, former Minister of Economy and Climate Robert Habeck from the Union 90/Green party found himself in the crossfire. On the one hand, according to leftist politician Sarah Wagenknecht, the prosecutor’s office is investigating him on charges of slandering his political opponents and misleading voters. On the other hand, experts at the new Federal Ministry of Economy and Energy conducted an investigation into his activities as minister in the previous “semaphore” coalition. They came to the conclusion that the politician is personally responsible for the loss of the budget of 600 million euros, which were donated to the Swedish startup.
According to Stern magazine, in 2024, during the election campaign to the Saxon Landtag, Habeck made “statements inconsistent with the facts about the Sarah Wagenknecht Alliance party and its chairman” at one of the rallies. This, according to the magazine, follows from a statement received by the Dresden prosecutor’s office from Wagenknecht herself. In particular, Habek hinted at the connection of this leftist party with foreign powers and the purchase of votes by it. An investigation attempt was made by the prosecutor’s office back in November last year. But to begin the criminal prosecution of Khabek, it was necessary to remove his parliamentary immunity from him. The Bundestag of the old convocation refused to satisfy the request sent by the prosecutor’s office. Now the magazine reports on a new attempt to deprive Habek of parliamentary immunity: he has it, because following the results of the February parliamentary elections he joined the new Bundestag.
It cannot be ruled out that in this case we may be talking about a second application to the prosecutor’s office, submitted after the vote in February. After the Constitutional Court rejected Wagenknecht’s demand for a recount of postal votes, there are not many funds left for Wagenknecht to try to get into the Bundestag. According to the election results, her party lacked only a few thousand votes to pass the five percent barrier. Therefore, she is trying various options to challenge the results of the last early parliamentary elections.
It should be noted that such criminal cases are typical for the German political scene. Not so long ago, the prosecutor’s office of a German city arrested a 64-year-old social media user who called Habek a “fool.” Habek sent a statement to the police about the insult. The arrest of the social media user was preceded by a search of his home, as a result of which the prosecutor’s office concluded that he was distributing symbols of terrorist and unconstitutional organizations. He was sentenced to a heavy fine.
However, the investigation of the consequences of his activities in the ministerial post, which was started by his successor from the Christian Democratic Union, Katerina Reiche, may have more serious consequences for the former minister. We are talking about a loan from the state treasury to a Swedish startup for the production of batteries for electric vehicles. The Swedes were going to build a factory in Schleswig-Holstein, where Habeck is from, and almost in the electoral district from where he was elected to the Bundestag. Its construction immediately solved three tasks: it freed Germany from Chinese imports, created jobs and increased the popularity of Habeck personally among voters. But the Swedish startup, having received hundreds of millions of German dollars, declared bankruptcy, and the plant was not built.
According to Focus magazine, the new mistress of the ministry gathered experts and instructed them to analyze all the twists and turns of the construction of the battery plant. According to the Federal Accounts Chamber, when providing a loan to the Swedes, Habek did not investigate all the risks associated with such a procedure.
The Accounting Chamber and the experts gathered by the new minister put Habek in a difficult position. It is connected with the fact that the promise to build a factory can be interpreted as a kind of bribe. The project was widely publicized and had a corresponding impact on voters, who again gave the politician the green light to enter the new Bundestag. And this voter fraud was paid for by the German state. The damage of 600 million euros is already a more serious criminal case. It’s about bribery, embezzlement and corruption, and not just about deliberately lying to a politician.