Germany’s defense minister came under fire from the opposition on Tuesday over a private flight with her son in an army helicopter.
Christine Lambrecht and her son Alexander Lambrecht, 21, flew a military helicopter to the island of Sylt in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein for a private stay in mid-April, Business Insider reported Tuesday.
The secretary first visited a battalion stationed in the Northern State, then flew with her son in a Cougar transport helicopter to the island for the Easter holiday. The minister’s son even posted a picture of himself in the helicopter on Instagram.
The Lambrecht government said Lambrecht paid the bill for her son’s trip, which the media reported was around 5,000 euros an hour.
However, the Social Democratic minister, who has been in the spotlight since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, has been criticized especially by conservatives who have come to the opposition benches since the end of 2021.
“The defense minister should be more tactful and not confuse the Luftwaffe with Lufthansa, Germany’s main airline,” Thorsten Frey, first secretary of the CDU/CSU faction in the Bundestag, told the newspaper.
Mary Agnes Strack Zimmermann, chair of the parliament’s defense committee and a member of the Free Democratic Party, which is part of the majority, also asked for clarification.
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