Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

POLITICS

Prosecutors investigate sudden death of German politician on flight from Cuba

A politician from Angela Merkel’s CDU party collapsed and died on a trans-Atlantic flight on Sunday, leading German prosecutors to seek further details about the circumstances of her death.

Published: 22 March 2021 14:43 CET

Prosecutors investigate sudden death of German politician on flight from Cuba

Karin Strenz. credit: dpa | Marcus Brandt

Karin Strenz, a 53-year-old member of the Bundestag for the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, was pronounced dead on arrival, after her flight from Cuba performed an emergency landing at Dublin Shannon airport. She had collapsed during the flight.

Prosecutors in Schwerin confirmed on Monday that they had opened an investigation and have asked Irish authorities for the results of a post mortem.

“We assume that a post mortem has taken place in Ireland,” a spokesperson for the Schwerin prosecution service told the German Press Agency.

The spokesperson said that it is normal practise to start an investigation in such circumstances.

Strenz had been a member of the Bundestag since 2009. She had been in Cuba with her husband.

On Monday, a spokesperson for the Bundestag said that she had not visited the island state on parliamentary business. A spokesperson for the CDU party also said that she had not been on a party delegation there.

Currently, all but essentially travel at home and abroad is discouraged by the German government due to the ongoing pandemic. Cuba is currently classified as a high risk area due to the island having a 7-day incidence above 50.

CDU faction leader in the Bundestag Ralph Brinkhaus said that “the sudden death of our colleague Karin Strenz has affected us all. Our condolences go out to her family in these difficult times.”

According to a report in Spiegel, Strenz was caught up in a lobbying scandal in 2019, when she was suspected of taking bribes from the government of Azerbaijan in return for lobbying on their behalf. According to Tagesschau, she was suspected of taking €4 million in bribes over shell companies based in the UK.

Her immunity as a member of the Bundestag was suspended while prosecutors investigated the case. While she did not stand down at the time, she had announced that she would not stand for election again at this autumn’s federal election.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

Scholz says attacks on deputies 'threaten' democracy

Scholz denounced the attack as a “threat” to democracy and the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also sounded the alarm.

Police said four unknown attackers beat up Matthias Ecke, an MEP for the Social Democratic Party (SPD), as he put up EU election posters in the eastern city of Dresden on Friday night.

Ecke, 41, was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said. Police confirmed he needed hospital treatment.

“Democracy is threatened by this kind of act,” Scholz told a congress of European socialist parties in Berlin, saying such attacks result from “discourse, the atmosphere created from pitting people against each other”.

“We must never accept such acts of violence… we must oppose it together.”

Borrell, posting on X, formerly Twitter, also condemned the attack.

“We’re witnessing unacceptable episodes of harassment against political representatives and growing far-right extremism that reminds us of dark times of the past,” he wrote.

“It cannot be tolerated nor underestimated. We must all defend democracy.”

The investigation is being led by the state protection services, highlighting the political link suspected by police.

“If an attack with a political motive… is confirmed just a few weeks from the European elections, this serious act of violence would also be a serious act against democracy,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in a statement.

This would be “a new dimension of anti-democratic violence”, she added.

Series of attacks

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s EU election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police added that a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had earlier been “punched” and “kicked” in the same Dresden street. The same attackers were suspected.

Faeser said “extremists and populists are stirring up a climate of increasing violence”.

The SPD highlighted the role of the far-right “AfD party and other right-wing extremists” in increased tensions.

“Their supporters are now completely uninhibited and clearly view us democrats as game,” said Henning Homann and Kathrin Michel, regional SPD leaders.

Armin Schuster, interior minister in Saxony, where an important regional vote is due to be held in September, said 112 acts of political violence linked to the elections have been recorded there since the beginning of the year.

Of that number, 30 were directed against people holding political office of one kind or another.

“What is really worrying is the intensity with which these attacks are currently increasing,” he said on Saturday.

On Thursday two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and one was hit in the face, police said.

Last Saturday, dozens of demonstrators surrounded parliament deputy speaker Katrin Goering-Eckardt, also a Greens lawmaker, in her car in eastern Germany. Police reinforcements had to clear a route for her to get away.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

Url copied to clipboard!