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Scholz in the Wirecard scandal Political leadership from yesterday

Status: 22.06.2021 5:50 p.m.

Finance Minister Scholz bears political responsibility for the Wirecard scandal. An apology would be appropriate. Because of his antiquated understanding of political leadership, there won’t be.

A comment by Tobias Betz, ARD capital studio

After eight months of the committee of inquiry, the question of political responsibility remains. And that is a fundamental question of political culture. Because there is not a word of regret from the government. Let’s not kid ourselves: this is shameful, but the reality.

The finance minister is politically responsible

Let’s take a look at the situation: The Wirecard case is one of the biggest financial scandals in Germany. At least 24 billion euros in damage. Everything happened in front of the eyes of the responsible authorities, which did not do their job in any way and at any time. And that is why there is certainly someone who is politically responsible – and that is the Federal Minister of Finance in this financial scandal. But Olaf Scholz makes it easy for himself. Not responsible, not involved, more like an observer. He could very well have – and should have – intervened. Because the Ministry of Finance has the legal and technical supervision of the Bafin. This is the financial supervisory authority. And she made gross miscalculations; she even supported Wirecard at times, reported journalists who had clues.

Not ready for self-reflection

Mistakes have been made. And the Scholz Ministry is responsible for ensuring that the financial supervision process works. If it just doesn’t work, then Scholz, as a minister, could be the size and have the courage to admit that mistakes have happened here. Honest words of regret. Society doesn’t really ask that much, a “Mea Culpa!”, “My mistake!” Is often enough. But Scholz is apparently not ready for this kind of error culture, critical self-reflection.

Don’t make any mistakes, least of all admit none

Maybe he’s not ready to do so because of the election campaign. Just don’t make any mistakes, least of all admit any mistakes. Protect yourself, after all, he is a candidate for chancellor. Namely one who advertises to have a lot of government experience. But leadership doesn’t include ironing out and fending off everything. That is an understanding of political leadership from the past. Mistakes happen, people make mistakes and they are allowed to admit them. That would be honest and brave. But as a consequence, calls for resignation like those from the AfD are out of place.

The Chancellor apologized

That promotes this unspeakable error culture in politics. If every mistake immediately costs the post, then it is already clear that there can be no political Mea Culpa. Chancellor Angela Merkel once broke with this culture of mistakes. During the lockdown policy at Easter. She had to withdraw an overnight decision to introduce an additional public holiday. But she didn’t do that quietly and without comment. No, she stood in front of Parliament and apologized in public for it. Apparently this remains an exception. But the Chancellor has the format of a chancellor. Editorial note Comments generally reflect the opinion of the respective author and not that of the editors

Wirecard scandal What’s left of the U committee

As of: 06/22/2021 9:16 a.m.

A year ago, the financial services provider Wirecard went bankrupt. A U-Committee of the Bundestag tried to find out why controllers and supervision failed. The committee has now completed its work.

From Tobias Betz, ARD capital studio

Head of authorities fired, insider trading uncovered: A reform should turn Germany’s financial supervision inside out. The committee of inquiry into the Wirecard scandal has initiated a lot. More than 100 witnesses were questioned and thousands of documents turned over.

Florian Toncar did this for the FDP: The investigative committee had come to a clear conclusion. “We made it very clear that the Wirecard case was not a natural disaster that no one could have foreseen or averted,” he says. There were hints and people who warned early on. The disturbing thing about the Wirecard case is that all of this could have happened with the eyes of sight and under the inspectors’ radar.

BaFin seal of approval?

The central accusation of the opposition: The Federal Financial Services Agency (BaFin) did not investigate early indications of possible irregularities at Wirecard. Instead, according to experts, the authority made fatal misjudgments.

BaFin was convinced that Wirecard was being blackmailed. That is why the authorities imposed a ban on the short sale of Wirecard shares in February 2019. BaFin had never before issued such a speculation ban with a single share. Many market participants understood this signal as a kind of seal of approval: You can trust Wirecard, the company is clean!

Many small investors then got on board. When the rumors that had been circulating for years about inflated balance sheets at Wirecard turned out to be true in June 2020, the share price plummeted. Wirecard was broke. Many small investors lost everything.

The minister and the chancellor had to testify

Since then, the public prosecutor has been investigating, among other things, gang fraud. Former board members were arrested and one of them, Jan Marsalek, is still on the run to this day. Because the control authorities are subordinate to ministries, the opposition’s criticism was directed at the government, says Lisa Paus, who sits on the committee of inquiry for the Greens. “Wirecard was also an auditor scandal. The supervision was under the economics minister Peter Altmaier,” says Paus. Above all, Wirecard is a broad supervisory scandal overall. “The financial supervision was under the SPD finance minister Olaf Scholz.”

Ministers Scholz and Altmaier had to testify in the committee of inquiry. Chancellor Angela Merkel was also questioned for hours. None of them admitted mistakes. On the other hand, the work of the investigative committee certainly increased the pressure on the Federal Finance Minister to completely reform the financial supervisory authority BaFin, which is subordinate to him, including a change at the top of BaFin.

Bankers lost their reputations

Financial expert Fabio De Masi from the Left Party is certain that the results of the committee of inquiry are not only politically interesting: “The auditors’ mistakes will play a role in class actions by small investors,” he says. Never before have so many heads rolled at the head of authorities in such a short time.

Authority managers, bankers, analysts, fund managers and BaFin employees – they lost their jobs, their bonuses, their reputation. These are the first concrete effects of the committee of inquiry into the Wirecard scandal. The witness chair on the investigative committee was therefore soon more feared by some than the dock in a criminal court