Head of North Hessian energy supplier as election observer at mock referendum in Ukraine | hessenschau.de

The managing director of the utility Energie Waldeck-Frankenberg is staying as an election observer at the controversial mock referendum in Ukraine. He accepted Russia’s invitation. The governor is shocked.

Stefan Schaller, managing director of the utility Energie Waldeck-Frankenberg (EWF), takes part in the internationally criticized sham referendum in Zaporizhia, Ukraine. He is obviously there as an election observer. This was announced by the Russian state news agency Tass. Schaller had been invited by the Russians to monitor the elections, it said.

“I wanted to get an idea of ​​the situation on the spot. Also because I believe that objective information can never be wrong,” said Schaller of the Hessian/Lower Saxony General (HNA). He therefore emphasized that his stay had nothing to do with his position as managing director of the energy supplier: “It’s purely private, I took vacation for it.”

He admitted that he was aware of the danger of being exploited by the Russian side. However, he “always tries to find facts and not political assessments,” said Schaller of the HNA. But he knows “that I only see what I’m supposed to see”. It is clear to him that the result of the referendums will be determined by the Kremlin.

Sham referendums run until Tuesday

With the vote, Russia wants to make Ukrainian regions part of the Russian Federation. The residents of the regions around Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia should cast their votes by Tuesday. They are simply asked whether their territories should be annexed to Russia. Due to reprisals, a majority “Yes” is expected in the referenda that will run until Tuesday.

A delegation of AfD politicians from Saxony-Anhalt and North Rhine-Westphalia also wanted to travel to the mock referendum. After severe criticism, including from within the party, they broke off the trip.

District Administrator and Chairman of the Supervisory Board: “I was shocked”

The district administrator of Waldeck-Frankenberg, Jürgen van der Horst (independent), sharply criticizes the fact that Schaller, managing director of the North Hessian energy supplier, is present at a sham referendum. “To put it bluntly, I was shocked,” he told Mr Van der Horst on Saturday, who is also the chairman of the EWF’s board of directors.

He was aware that Stefan Schaller was on vacation and traveling. “I didn’t know that he linked this stay with his job as an election observer,” says van der Horst. Both the district as the owner of the company and the company itself have no connection to Schaller’s stay in Ukraine.

Schaller as early as 2021 as an election observer in Russia

“We stand for different political content and very clearly reject what is happening in Ukraine. That applies to the referendum and to this criminal war in general,” said van der Horst. The visit to the region and the activity of accompanying the mock referendum as an election observer could be interpreted as legitimizing the illegal process, as the district announced in writing on Saturday.

As early as 2021, Stefan Schaller was an election observer at an election in Russia. “I wasn’t the chairman of the supervisory board then. I’ve only been that since January,” says van der Horst. The public debate was very “clear” at the time. “Apparently that was perhaps also the mistake of the managing director in assuming that because there was no critical discussion at the time, one could accept such invitations again. But he’s wrong,” said van der Horst.

Meeting of the Board of Directors on Monday

The committees of the district are to meet on Saturday to discuss. That’s according to the district’s statement. The supervisory board of the energy supplier will also meet on Monday to vote on the future of Managing Director Schaller.

The plan is for Schaller to remain in Ukraine until September 27th. “But I’m trying to get back to Germany as soon as possible. There are a few things to clarify,” he told the HNA.