SPD politician
Minister of Labor Heil awarded posts to witnesses
No conflict of interest: The Ministry of Labor defends a top position filled by a friend of Minister Heil. photo
© Carsten Koall/dpa
In 2018, Carsten Stender became head of department in the Ministry of Health. He has been friends with the minister for many years. Stender’s expertise is said to have been decisive for the occupation.
Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) has awarded a post in his ministry to his best man. According to the ministry, Carsten Stender has been head of department for European and international employment and social policy at the BMAS since 2018.
“The decisive factor for this appointment was his extensive expertise in the international field,” says the Heil department. The fact that he was the minister’s best man around 20 years ago is an expression of private friendship.
However, the decisive factor for the appointment as head of department is his technical expertise. There is no conflict of interest whatsoever. The “Spiegel” had previously reported about it.
Memoirs of the Graichen case
Most recently, Economics Minister Robert Habeck was criticized for wrong decisions by his top employee Patrick Graichen (both Greens). The background was the planned funding of a project by the Berlin State Association of the Federal Government for the Environment and Nature Conservation, on whose board Graichen’s sister is.
Graichen is to be placed on temporary retirement. He had previously been criticized for his involvement in the selection of his best man for the chief post of the federal German Energy Agency.