“Mallorca Affair”
Minister for Europe shows Secretary of State “stinky fingers”
“I understood the teasing as a joke among colleagues and reacted just as jokingly”: Stephan Holthoff-Pförtner. Photo: Federico Gambarini/dpa
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Like the NRW Environment Minister Ursula Heinen-Esser, who has since resigned, Europe Minister Stephan Holthoff-Pförtner is involved in the “Mallorca affair”. Now a “stinky finger gesture” from him makes headlines.
The so-called “Mallorca affair” surrounding the resigned NRW Environment Minister Ursula Heinen-Esser (CDU) continues to be a topic of conversation.
Yesterday afternoon, North Rhine-Westphalia’s Europe Minister Stephan Holthoff-Pförtner (CDU) reacted at Berlin Airport to a taunt from Duisburg SPD member of the Bundestag Mahmut Özdemir (SPD) in public with the “stinky finger gesture.” The minister confirmed the incident to the German Press Agency.
Özedemir – parliamentary state secretary in the Federal Ministry of the Interior – had asked the Holthoff porter, who was himself involved in the “Mallorca affair”, after boarding whether he was on the right plane. This goes to Düsseldorf, not to Mallorca. The online portal “The Pioneer” had previously reported about it.
Holthoff-Pförtner said on request: “Anyone who knows me knows that I would never mean that in an insulting way. I understood the teasing as a joke among colleagues and reacted just as jokingly. » Nevertheless, he later realized that the middle finger gesture was “extremely misleading” for outsiders who had not heard the dialogue before, the 73-year-old from Essen admitted.
“So I contacted Mahmut Özdemir personally on Saturday morning and assured him that I didn’t want to offend or offend him. He, in turn, assured me that he also understood my ironic gesture as a harmless exchange of blows.” Özdemir could not initially be reached for comment.
Holthoff-Pförtner is himself affected by the “Mallorca affair”. A week and a half after the flood disaster began in July 2021, he traveled to the Balearic Islands to attend a birthday party for Heinen-Esser’s husband. Building Minister Ina Scharrenbach (CDU) and then State Secretary Serap Güler (CDU) were also present at the evening. Everyone involved has since apologized. Heinen-Esser resigned on Thursday under great public pressure.