Green politician: Scholz is known as an asshole in the SPD

Green politician: Scholz is known as an asshole in the SPD dpa Fri., December 27, 2024 at 11:11 PM CET Piechotta apologizes in writing in the evening. Berlin (dpa) - The Green housekeeper Paula Piechotta has drawn criticism with a harsh insult from Chancellor Olaf Scholz and finally apologized. In a podcast, the Leipzig member of the Bundestag complained that Scholz was isolated in European politics and then said in this context: "I would say that the SPD has known Olaf Scholz for a very long time. Everyone in the SPD knows that Olaf Scholz is an asshole." The statement was heard in an episode of the podcast "Ostgrün" published on December 23, which Piechotta records with her party colleague and Leipzig local politician Martin Meißner. Several media outlets had previously reported. Piechotta said: "Macron invites Selenskyj and Trump to Notre Dame - and Scholz isn't even there. That's dramatic." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj and the designated US President Donald Trump attended the ceremony to reopen the cathedral in Paris at the beginning of December. Before that, a three-way meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron took place. Piechotta called the SPD Chancellor a below-average head of government who had disproportionately destroyed a lot in Europe. Video removed, but excerpt still on X The video for the podcast was made private on the YouTube platform in the evening, but the corresponding excerpt with the controversial statement can still be found in large numbers on the X platform. Several SPD politicians criticized the Greens on X for their choice of words. Deputy parliamentary group leader Detlef Müller wrote, for example, "You simply don't call the Chancellor an 'asshole'. Basics of education and decency." After criticism, apology in the evening Piechotta apologized in the evening on X. "Dear colleagues from the SPD, dear Olaf Scholz, my words have obviously offended you, for which I apologize. I would like to emphasize once again, as above, that it is not my personal opinion that Olaf Scholz should be described in this way," she wrote. A few hours earlier, she had already announced that she wanted to remove the relevant passage from the podcast, but insisted that she had not insulted Scholz. She had only repeated statements internal to the SPD.