Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his wife Britta Ernst are said to have disposed of confidential documents in the household waste. According to a media report, neighbors found an internal document on the G7 summit.
Neighbors of Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his wife Britta Ernst, Brandenburg Minister of Education (both SPD), discovered confidential government documents in the household waste. The “Spiegel” reports.
According to this, printouts from the appointment calendar, e-mail correspondence, speech drafts or overviews of a potential choice of clothes by Ernst were found. Shortly after the G7 summit in Schloss Elmau, Bavaria, a document appeared with photos and “brief profiles of the partners” of the heads of state and government.
Although the information is essentially known to the public, the Federal Foreign Office classified the paper as “classified information – for official use only”. And there are strict rules for that.
“Classified information classified as ‘VS – only for official use’ can only be taken outside of the office building or property on business trips and to official meetings if this is necessary for business purposes and they are adequately secured against unauthorized knowledge and access,” quotes the “Spiegel ’ from the federal administrative regulation on so-called ‘material confidentiality protection’.
And further: Such classified information should be destroyed “in such a way that the content is neither recognizable nor can it be made recognizable”. Scholz and Ernst have not yet commented on this when asked by Spiegel.