Reported remark by Germany's Scholz at private party sparks attacks
Several German opposition conservatives expressed outrage after revelations that Chancellor Olaf Scholz had dismissed one of their colleagues as a "court jester" during a heated discussion at a private birthday party.
At the party, Scholz reportedly again accused challenger Friedrich Merz of the centre-right CDU/CSU of angling his party toward a tacit alliance with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), something Merz has strenuously denied.
Another guest at the party, Berlin's culture minister, Joe Chialo, reportedly challenged Scholz's remarks - leading the chancellor to shoot back that "every party has their court jesters," according to a report by FOCUS magazine, whose editor-in-chief was also at the event.
The magazine accused Scholz of racism with the remark which the magazine reported was directed at Chialo, who is black. The chancellor vehemently denied any such allegation.
In an interview with the news magazine Der Spiegel, Scholz said that he was "blindsided" when he saw the reporting on the incident.
"I can be accused of many things, but certainly not of being a racist," Scholz said.
Scholz said he never intended any link between the "court jester" comment and Chialo's skin colour, and that the accusation made him "personally very upset."
He said he appreciates Chialo and regrets if Chialo understood the remark as directed toward him.
"I just didn't say what has been reported," the chancellor told Der Spiegel, which also reported that Scholz and Chialo plan to speak by phone on Wednesday evening.
The incident took place at a birthday party for the politically connected entrepreneur Harald Christ, who once served as national treasurer for the free-market liberal Free Democrats.
The Chancellor instructed media lawyer Christian Schertz to take legal action against the magazine, whose wording had given the impression of a racist insult.
In an earlier statement, Scholz had also vehemently denied that his remarks indicated any racial animus. A lawyer for Scholz also announced plans to take legal action against FOCUS over the wording of the article.
"The term I used here has no racist connotations and was never intended to be used in this way," Scholz said in the statement. "The accusation of racism is absurd and artificially constructed."
Chialo declined to comment on the incident. A spokesman for his ministry in Berlin confirmed that there had been an "incident" at an event attended by Scholz and Chialo, but said that he "will not comment further."
The birthday party took place about 10 days ago, but was only revealed in the FOCUS report on Wednesday, less than two weeks before the February 23 elections in Germany.
Scholz is trying to mount a comeback and secure a second term as chancellor in the campaign against Merz, who is widely viewed as the front-runner to defeat him.
Merz attacked Scholz over the reported comment at a campaign event on Wednesday, saying he was "really speechless" when he heard about the exchange.
But the general secretary of Scholz's centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), Matthias Miersch, accused FOCUS of doing "targeted campaign work" on Merz's behalf with the story.
"The CDU is staging a wave of indignation here, which is being unleashed 10 days after the alleged incident," Miersch said.
He added that Merz has made numerous highly controversial comments himself, such as referring to children of immigrants as "little pashas" and calling Ukrainian refugees "welfare tourists."
A party whose top candidate uses such language to defame people "should refrain from making untenable accusations against Olaf Scholz," Miersch said.
Christ, the party's host, told dpa that around 300 guests had been invited to the party including politicians, business people, figures from the cultural sphere and journalists.
Christ said he was not present at the exchange between Scholz and Chialo, "but I have known Olaf Scholz long enough and well enough to say that it is absurd to paint the chancellor as a racist."
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