Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) spoke publicly for the first time on Wednesday about the controversial flight of her adult son in a government helicopter to North Friesland, where she was visiting the troops. She understands if there is criticism, said Lambrecht on ZDFlunchtime magazine. She justified the flight by wanting to spend time with her son. “As a minister, I’m in a situation where I have very little time for private life and especially for contact with my son,” said Lambrecht. “I ask for your understanding that it’s about maintaining contact with the child.”
In the matter, “everything was legally correct,” said Lambrecht. However, she will draw consequences from the criticism. Such travel plans would be made “completely differently” in the future. In her private life she will pay “even more attention” to the fact that “such allegations are then not possible”. However, contact with her son is important to her “as a mother”. This may have tempted her to make a decision “that one would no longer make in retrospect”.
The minister said that she reserved the right “to react accordingly to all statements made about me or my family if there were false allegations of fact”.
According to her ministry, Lambrecht had visited the Battalion Electronic Warfare 911 in North Friesland on April 13 and had himself flown by helicopter from the Berlin office to Ladelund. Her 21-year-old son accompanied her, without him attending the military appointment.
For such a flight, the economy fare of Lufthansa is charged
After an overnight stay in a hotel, the next day we went by car and bodyguards to the nearby island of Sylt for an Easter vacation. A spokesman for the Department of Defense said the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the booking of the hotel stay after the visit to the troops “was done from the Federal Minister’s office”. However, “no Bundeswehr special conditions were applied”.
The guidelines for deploying the Bundeswehr flight readiness allow Lambrecht to take personal guests with him. In her case, the son is said to have been treated as “another companion”. Costs must then be invoiced for him. The normal economy fare of Lufthansa is used as the basis for assessment. The ministry could not provide any information on Wednesday about the exact amount. “The final cost statement is currently being prepared,” said a spokesman. This is “an administrative process that will probably take some time”.
When asked by the SZ whether the Ministry of Defense or subordinate agencies had assumed or advanced costs for the son, the spokesman explained that this had not been the case.
Lambrecht had repeatedly taken her son with her on business trips when she was Federal Minister of Justice. “Lambrecht was accompanied by her son on a total of seven trips abroad, but she only used the Bundeswehr’s readiness to fly once – on June 7, 2021 on the return flight from Luxembourg,” said a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice of the SZ. For her son’s participation on the return flight on June 7, Lambrecht “paid the usual costs privately, these amount to 100 percent of the corresponding economy fare for Lufthansa”.
When asked whether the son’s travels could damage the reputation of the federal government in the public discussion, a government spokeswoman said on Wednesday that Chancellor Olaf Scholz was working “closely and trustingly” with the defense minister – and she was on the matter didn’t want to comment further.