Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) does not want to dismiss his state secretary Patrick Graichen because of his misconduct in filling an important position. "I have decided that Patrick Graichen does not have to leave because of this mistake," the minister said on Wednesday in Berlin after his questioning in a joint meeting of the committees on economics and climate protection and energy.

"And the debate in the committee gives me, I think, a certain hope that the differentiation will also make this decision clearer to understand," Habeck added.

The background to this is the selection of a new managing director for the state-owned German Energy Agency (Dena), in which Graichen was involved. In the end, the choice fell on his best man Michael Schäfer. Both Graichen and Habeck now speak of a mistake. The guidelines of the Ministry of Economics had been "visibly violated," Habeck said. "In this respect, there is also an examination of the extent to which civil service law is affected."

Dena position to be re-advertised

In the afternoon, at the instigation of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, the Bundestag wanted to debate the topic in a Current Hour. Union representatives, including parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz (CDU), speak of nepotism and also bring a committee of inquiry into play. Merz had said on Tuesday that such a committee would be an "appropriate means" if the open questions were not sufficiently answered in the committee meeting.

Meanwhile, the position of Dena's managing director is to be re-advertised in the coming days. This was stated by the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Parliamentary State Secretary for Economic Affairs Stefan Wenzel (Greens), on Tuesday evening in Berlin at an event to bid farewell to the current Managing Director Andreas Kuhlmann. "It will also be put out to public tender in a few days and then anyone can apply again."

According to Wenzel, the selection committee was broadened, "in terms of the number of people, but also in terms of anchoring in the ministries". He hopes that a decision will be made "very early" and that it will be known before the summer break who will lead Dena together with Managing Director Kristina Haverkamp in the future. Schäfer was supposed to take office on June 15.