Frankfurt District Court on Tuesday issued a €4,500 (nearly $ 5,100) fine to a drug-addled driver who slipped into Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s security convoy and hugged the politician on an airport runway.
The 50-year-old, who was handed the penalty for driving under the influence of narcotics and trespassing, said he had been partying for two days and had only joined the convoy by chance.
What the court heard about the Scholz hug
The man said he had repeatedly consumed cocaine and hadn’t slept when he was driving on a public highway. He claimed to have joined the chancellor’s convoy by mistake before entering the grounds of Frankfurt Airport as part of the motorcade.
When the convoy stopped, he left his car and approached Scholz as he was about to board the plane. He then shook the politician’s hand and embraced him before being detained by police.
Through his lawyer, the defendant explained that he had been following the lead of other people with the chancellor in giving him such an affectionate farewell.
He expressed remorse in the courtroom and promised to improve his behavior, claiming to have landed in the situation by mistake. It was a bittersweet experience, he said. The defendant was found only partially responsible for the crime.
The May 2023 incident happened as Scholz was returning to Berlin after a 25th anniversary celebration for the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank.
Scholz’s spokesperson Wolfgang Büchner at the time told reporters that the German leader “didn’t feel threatened at any point.” However, the curious case did spark a debate about the chancellor’s safety.
Scholz’s time as chancellor is nearing an end. Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, is set to meet on May 6 to elect Friedrich Merz as the country’s next leader, if the parties in his proposed government approve a coalition deal reached last week.
Edited by: Wesley Rahn
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