Green politician: Scholz is known as an asshole in the SPD

Green party housekeeper Paula Piechotta has drawn criticism for a harsh insult to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and has finally apologized. In a podcast, the Leipzig member of the Bundestag complained that Scholz was isolated in terms of European policy and then said in this context: "I would say that the SPD has known Olaf Scholz for a very long time. Everyone in the SPD knows that Olaf Scholz is an asshole."

The statement was heard in an episode of the "Ostgrün" podcast published on December 23, which Piechotta records with her party colleague and Leipzig local politician Martin Meißner. Several media had previously reported.

Piechotta said: "Macron is inviting Selenskyj and Trump to Notre Dame - and Scholz isn't even there. That is quite dramatic." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selensky and US President-elect Donald Trump attended the ceremony to reopen the cathedral in Paris at the beginning of December. This was preceded by a three-way meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. Piechotta called the SPD chancellor a below-average head of government who had done a disproportionate amount to ruin Europe.

Video removed, but excerpt still on X

The video for the podcast was made private on the YouTube platform in the evening, but the corresponding excerpt with the controversial statement can still be found in large numbers on the X platform.

Several SPD politicians criticized the Greens on X for their choice of words. Parliamentary group deputy Detlef Müller wrote, for example, "You simply don't call the Federal Chancellor an "Arxxxhole". Fundamentals of education and decency."

After criticism, apology in the evening

Piechotta apologized in the evening on X. "Dear colleagues from the SPD, dear Olaf Scholz, my words have obviously offended you, for which I apologize. I would like to emphasize once again, as I did above, that it is not my personal opinion that Olaf Scholz should be called that," she wrote.

A few hours earlier, she had already announced that she wanted to remove the relevant passage from the podcast, but insisted that she had not insulted Scholz. She had only reproduced internal SPD statements.

All parties represented in the Bundestag except AfD and BSW had agreed on a so-called fairness agreement for the election campaign shortly before Christmas. "We will debate with respect for each other and refrain from personal disparagement or attacks on the personal or professional environment of politicians," it states.