German chancellor candidate to be grilled in fraud probe

FRANKFURT: German lawmakers will Monday quiz Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, the frontrunner in the race to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor, over an investigation into an anti-money laundering agency overseen by his ministry.

Scholz’s appearance before the German parliament’s finance committee comes less than a week before Germans go to the polls in national elections on September 26.

MPs from opposition parties will have the opportunity to ask Scholz questions via video link after the finance and justice ministries were raided by prosecutors on September 9 as part of a probe into the Colognebased Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). The body, part of Germany’s customs authority tasked with tackling money laundering, is suspected of failing to report potential wrongdoing to the relevant authorities.

Merkel’s conservative bloc has seen a steady decline in opinion polls under unpopular candidate Armin Laschet, allowing Scholz’s centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) to grab a late polling lead.

“Nerves at the SPD are shredded” at the prospect that the scandal could have an impact on the party’s poll ratings, according to German weekly Der Spiegel.

But prosecutors are also under scrutiny over the timing of their raids.

The under-pressure conservatives have seized the opportunity to attack Scholz for his involvement in the controversy.