, a member of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), says he might take legal action over the report claiming that he racially insulted one of his conservative opponents at a birthday reception.
In an interview with the news magazine Spiegel, Scholz dismissed an account of events provided by the news magazine Focus Online.
What was Scholz accused of?
Focus Online claimed that, during a heated discussion at the gathering last week, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had described Berlin’s culture minister Joe Chialo as a “court jester.”
The magazine’s editor-in-chief was present at the party, for the politically connected entrepreneur Harald Christ. The article accused Social Democrat Scholz of racism in having directed the remark at Chialo, who is Black.
In the discussion, Chialo was said to have challenged Scholz’s accusation that the CDU was veering toward a .
The online piece, which described “an exhilarated chancellor, glass of white wine in hand,” repeatedly asserted that Scholz’s comments had been racist.
It referred to the incident as a racist “outburst” and “lapse” on the part of Scholz, who allegedly also called Chialo, who has Tanzanian family roots, a “fig leaf” for racism within the CDU.
The allegations came less than two weeks ahead of , where Scholz’s SPD is predicted to suffer significant losses.
How have the two men responded?
While Scholz admitted he did call Chialo a “court jester,” he said it was “never” meant as a racial slur.
Scholz also said he did not say “what was reported there.”
“Those who claim something false by putting words together in some way must expect to go to court,” he said.
The chancellor said he respected Chialo and sought contact with the CDU politician “immediately” after the allegations became known, Scholz said.
“What I have never done is to link this to the skin color of Mr. Chialo, whom I certainly respect.”
The chancellor had earlier posted a denial that his comments carried a racist element in a post on the messaging platform X.
“The accusation of racism is absurd and artificially constructed,” he wrote. “Personally, I value Joe Chialo as an important liberal voice in the Union [Germany’s conservative bloc].”
Chialo said he was “deeply hurt” that Scholz had called him a “court jester” and a “fig leaf,” adding that the words were “degrading and hurtful.” Nevertheless, Chialo added, he did not consider Scholz to be “a racist.”
What are other German political figures saying?
The conservative CDU/CSU and other CDU politicians reacted with indignation to the incident.
Speaking on the sidelines of a campaign event ahead of Germany’s February 23 election, Merz said he was “really speechless” when he heard about it.
Meanwhile, the general secretary of Scholz’s SPD, Matthias Miersch, accused Focus of conducting “targeted campaign work” on Merz’s behalf with the story.
“The CDU is staging a wave of indignation here, which is being unleashed 10 days after the alleged incident,” Miersch said.
Edited by: Wesley Dockery
The post Germany: Scholz warns of lawsuit over ‘racist lapse’ claim appeared first on Deutsche Welle.
