Several politicians suggest Giffey’s resignation

northAfter the Federal Minister of the Family Franziska Giffey (SPD) resigned her doctorate, politicians from various parties have suggested her resignation. FDP Vice President Wolfgang Kubicki told “Bild” newspaper (Saturday edition) that Giffey’s decision “does not redeem her.” The question of whether she “cheated” while creating the work needs to be clarified. “If it turns out you’ve been cheating, all that’s left is to resign.” There is no logical reason for other standards than, for example, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg to apply to it. Last year, Giffey announced his resignation in the event that his title was taken away after accusations of plagiarism.

Criticism also came from within his own party. Giffey’s predecessor as the mayor of Berlin-Neukölln, Heinz Buschkowsky (SPD), told “Bild” that Giffey’s resignation came “too late to get out of the number decently.” In reality, she has no choice “but to assume the consequences that she herself announced a good year ago,” he added. The vice chairman of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group, Arnold Vaatz (CDU) said that he respected Giffey’s decision, but was now “very curious to know whether the same standards as in the Guttenberg and Schavan cases will be applied to the SPD minister.” .

FDP member of the Bundestag, Thomas Sattelberger, told “Bild” that Giffey had tried to stay out of the plagiarism issue until the very end. “That shows neither decency nor morality nor insight. Anyone acting in such a hypocritical manner will be disqualified for a superior candidate. And also for a ministerial office ”. The AfD had previously called for Giffey’s resignation. “Giffey’s resignation from the doctorate comes too late and stems from purely tactical considerations,” said Martin Trefzer, science policy spokesman for the Berlin AfD parliamentary group.

On the issue of plagiarism in her dissertation, the federal minister for Family Affairs stated on Friday that she would no longer want to use her doctorate in the future. But she wants to continue her work as a federal minister and, as announced, run for the state presidency at the SPD party congress in Berlin. The Free University (FU) of Berlin decided not to withdraw the doctorate in autumn 2019. However, last week it announced that the examination procedure for the doctoral thesis should be implemented again.