Ever since Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced her candidacy, everything has been set for the election campaign in Hesse.
The Hessian member of the state parliament Torsten Felstehausen criticized the actions of the Hessian state chancellery on Twitter. His accusation: The official account of the state government retweeted a post on Saturday morning that represented interference in the election campaign. “This is a clear partisanship,” said Felstehausen when asked by t-online. Meanwhile, the State Chancellery cannot understand how the tweet came about.
In the tweet, which Felstehausen said the State Chancellery had shared, a Twitter user criticized the announced candidacy of Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD). “Hesse is doing well with Boris Rhein. We don’t need a failed half-time interior minister from the SPD,” wrote the user there. Faeser announced on Thursday that she wanted to become Prime Minister of Hesse. Until the election, she wants to continue to head the Ministry of the Interior in Berlin. Read more here.
“The state chancellery has to behave neutrally in such matters,” demands Felstehausen. The tweet directed against Faeser is inflammatory, says the parliamentary director of the left-wing faction. “Of course, the state government can present its own work, but that’s going too far.”
State Chancellery cannot confirm retweet
Shortly after he published his criticism including a screenshot, the retweet was withdrawn. He has not yet received an answer to his question of how this could have happened, he told t-online. When asked, the State Chancellery explains on Sunday: “We have examined the process in detail and are continuing to examine it. According to everything that can currently be said, no tweet was retweeted from our channel on Saturday, February 4th.” The State Chancellery takes its duty of neutrality very seriously.
Felstehausen also criticized that the author of the original tweet was a problematic user from his point of view: “It’s scary, I see a lot of lateral thinker content and right-wing ideas.”
A new state parliament will be elected in Hesse on October 8th. Then the Social Democrats want to move into the Wiesbaden State Chancellery for the first time since 1999. For Faeser, the main competitors in the state elections are likely to be the incumbent Prime Minister Boris Rhein from the CDU and the Green Economics Minister Tarek Al-Wazir.
