Federal Minister of Defense Christine Lambrecht (SPD) must provide further details in the so-called "helicopter affair". This was decided by the NRW Higher Administrative Court.
A luxury trip at the taxpayer's expense? Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht has been confronted with these accusations since the middle of the year. Lambrecht's son accompanied his mother on a business trip in a Bundeswehr helicopter. The SPD politician has not yet provided any information about the exact background. Now the Higher Administrative Court NWR has ruled that the Federal Minister of Defense must answer questions from journalists on this topic.
What had happened?
In April 2022, Christine Lambrecht flew by Bundeswehr helicopter to a Bundeswehr unit in northern Germany as part of a business trip. On board: her 21-year-old son Alexander. He posted a photo of himself in the BW helicopter on Instagram - triggering a flood of critical questions. Lambrecht paid just 261 euros for her son's flight, which was only a fraction of the total cost. A journalist from the "Tagesspiegel" then asked the minister. Among other things, he wanted to know who had taken the sensitive photo in the first place. Lambrecht, however, refused to answer.
The first lawsuit was already successful
In May, the "Tagesspiegel" finally took legal action before the administrative court in Cologne, citing the freedom of the press enshrined in the German constitution. The court ruled that Lambrecht had to answer questions about the photo. The SPD politician lodged an appeal, referring to her "inner sphere of privacy". The case went to the next higher instance and ended up before the NRW Higher Administrative Court. The verdict? Unambiguous! The photo was taken in relation to the minister's official duties - and not in a protected private setting. Furthermore, the minister had "voluntarily interwoven her private interests with the performance of her official duties".
A victory for freedom of the press
The German Journalists' Association sees the ruling as a victory for press freedom. The courts have strengthened journalists' right to information, the association said in a statement. Lambrecht herself announced shortly after the ruling that she had taken the photo of her son herself, who had then posted the photo online.
