First he hugged the chancellor, then he comfortably smoked a cigarette in his car: what sounds absurd actually happened in Frankfurt on Wednesday.
After the unplanned hug of Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) on the tarmac at Frankfurt Airport, more details about the incident came to light. Accordingly, the news magazine “Der Spiegel” reported, citing the investigators’ initial findings, that the arrested man was a 48-year-old Greek. According to a quick test, he was under the influence of drugs. “Bild” reported on Friday evening that the man confessed to the police after the arrest that he had previously taken cocaine.
The man made a confused impression during the interrogation, the reports continue. He is said to have said to Scholz that he wanted to “make some music” with him. There was initially no official confirmation of this.
The driver made it into a security area at Frankfurt Airport without authorization on Wednesday and hugged Chancellor Scholz there. A government spokesman said there was a handshake and then a hug. The incident drew sharp criticism – because the security personnel had not noticed the intruder and later failed to keep them away from the Chancellor.
Mann was driving a dark Audi – like Scholz
But what exactly happened? On Wednesday evening, the 48-year-old unnoticed joined the Chancellor’s convoy in a dark Audi A5 on the way from the European Central Bank – where Scholz had given a speech – to the airport. The man passed the security barrier unhindered. According to “Bild”, Scholz and the BKA officials were traveling in dark Audi A8 vehicles. What the police obviously didn’t notice: The A5 had a Hessian number plate, the A8 had a special number plate with a B for Berlin.
According to “Bild” information, a fixed number of vehicles was registered at the Cargo City South Gate in the south of the airport. But often only the BKA knows the number. As the Chancellor left his car on the tarmac, the man walked up to him, shook his hand and hugged him, the federal government has confirmed.
It was only when the man ran towards Scholz that Scholz’s bodyguards and other police officers took notice, as “Bild” reported. According to “Spiegel”, the man initially remained unmolested after the incident and smoked a cigarette in his car. Only when the federal police officers were alerted would he then be arrested.
The Chancellor’s security guards may not have realized immediately that it was an unauthorized person and not, for example, an airport employee who happened to be present, it said. The man apparently got out around the time when the Hessian state police officers lined up for a souvenir photo. No dangerous objects were found on him or in his vehicle.
“Never felt threatened”
A BKA spokeswoman said “Bild” that the man was “arrested by the Federal Police at Frankfurt Airport without resistance”. Deputy government spokesman Wolfgang Büchner said in Berlin that the chancellor “never felt threatened”. Nevertheless, there were of course questions that would now be clarified, he said. After all, “worse could have happened”.
There was “a handshake and then a hug”, but “beyond the physical contact” there was no exchange between the Chancellor and the man involved, Büchner said. “Bild” reported, citing information from the Chancellery, that for Scholz it was “not a major incident in the specific situation”, “just a surprisingly warm hug”.
Embed
“Such an incident must not happen,” said Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) on the sidelines of an appointment at the German-Czech border. “The parties involved will now work out very precisely what caused it, where mistakes happened, in order to avoid them in the future.”
Man smoking cigarette in car after hug
“We take the process very seriously,” said a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior. As usual, the Federal Criminal Police Office was responsible for protecting Scholz, and in the case of Frankfurt Airport the federal police and the Hessian state police were also there. So far, it cannot be said exactly “where the error was”.
