With German elections only two months away, a minister found herself embroiled in a political scandal on Monday after she took her official Mercedes on holiday with her to Spain — where it was stolen.

The press, rival politicians and pressure groups have demanded to know why Social Democratic (SPD) Health Minister Ulla Schmidt asked her driver to travel the 2653 kilometres (1648 miles) from Berlin to the Costa Blanca in Spain.

Georg Schirmbeck, from Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), said the minister's actions sent the wrong message amid the country's worst economic downturn since World War II.

"It is a scandalous waste of taxpayers' money that this SPD politician sent her official limousine and chauffeur all the way across Europe to her Spanish holiday spot," he told the daily Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung on Monday.

Patrick Doering, an MP for the opposition pro-business Free Democrats, said: "I cannot imagine that the German embassy in Madrid was not in a position to drive the minister to one or several events."

"If need be, we need to think about how we can punish ministers. But hopefully, the voters will do that on 27 September " he added, referring to the date of the general election.

Minister denies any wrongdoing

The affair is highly unwelcome for chancellor candidate Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose SPD is trailing Merkel's conservatives by a double-digit margin.

It was not immediately clear what consequences Schmidt might face but the minister herself has denied any wrongdoing.

The health ministry issued a statement late Sunday saying: "Like all cabinet members, the minister for health has at her continuous disposal an official car with a driver for official and private use."

"During this year's holiday in Spain, she has used the official car several times for official and private purposes."

"Private journeys will of course be settled privately in accordance with the rules," the statement added.

Schmidt had previously said she was using the Mercedes only for official purposes, such as a planned meeting later Monday with Germans living in Spain, and had rented a car for personal use.

Accused of waffling

Reiner Holznagel from the taxpayers' union, a pressure group, accused her of waffling: "Mrs Schmidt has gone back and forth.

"When we asked her on Saturday, she said she was not using the official car for private purposes and that she had her own car on site. In the meantime, the ministry said she was in fact using it for private purposes and was paying for it.

"The fact remains that the car had to go from Berlin to Alicante and that costs a lot of money," Holznagel told news channel N24.

The press has also seized on the affair with the story splashed over the front pages of most German papers.

"Why does the health minister need her official car on holiday?" asked mass circulation Bild.

Minster affair on public display

Holznagel pointed out that if thieves had not broken into her driver's apartment and made off with the key to the Mercedes S-class, the affair would likely never have come to the public's attention.

The scandal comes at a bad time for the SPD which has shown no sign of closing the gap with Merkel's Christian Democrats.

On 19 July a survey showed some 80 percent of Germans expect Merkel to cruise to a second term in the elections, where she hopes to ditch the SPD as her coalition partner and instead form a government with the liberal Free Democrats.

AFP

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