hero of the day

The new German ministers for the next 4 years have been announced, and our most beloved Mr. Schäuble will become minister of finance. The heads of the three coalition parties – Merkel (CDU), Seehofer (CSU) and Westerwelle (FDP) – gave a press conference today.

A Dutch reporter asked Merkel how she possibly came up with the idea to nominate “a person” as minister of finance who “forgot” about receiving 100.000 Deutsche Mark when questioned in the German parliament in 1999.
The background: Schäuble took 100.000 DM from an arms dealer in 1994, denied any financial transaction when questioned in 1999, and one year later admitted receiving 100.000 DM.

Merkel replied very shortly that she trusts “this person” (both actually avoid the name Schäuble). The reporter pretends to be confused and asks again, but Merkel just dodges the question, and the moderator goes on: “next question, please”.

• Video of the press conference (youtube, 1:13 minutes)
• background on wikipedia (unfortunately only in German)

(Source: fefe, wikipedia, spiegel)