German defence minister criticism for son’s helicopter ride

Christine Lambrecht, the German Defence Minister, was criticism on Tuesday for allowing her son to accompany her on a government helicopter on their way to a family vacation.

According to Business Insider, Lambrecht and her 21-year-old son Alexander went from Berlin to northern Germany on a Bundeswehr helicopter in mid-April, with the son posting a photo of the ride on Instagram.

Lambrecht utilised the trip to visit troops in Stadum, Schleswig-Holstein, before heading to the nearby island of Sylt with her son for a brief Easter holiday.

According to a defence ministry spokeswoman, Lambrecht did not break any laws by taking a family member on the helicopter, and he “covered 100 percent of the cost” of his flight.

Despite this, German media questioned the appropriateness of the decision, with Der Spiegel stating it “raised some eyebrows” and Bild asking if the vacation was even necessary in the midst of the Ukraine crisis.

Lambrecht was accused by opposition politician Thorsten Frei of the CDU of conflating the German air force “with Lufthansa”.

“Using the Bundeswehr military for private and partisan means is inelegant,” he told Bild.

The timing of Lambrecht’s vacation, according to MP Reinhard Brandl of the CDU’s Bavarian sister party, the CSU, “was already borderline” given the situation in Ukraine.

“That her son is now also boasting on Instagram that he was allowed to fly on a government helicopter to Sylt is the last straw,” he told Spiegel.

The liberal FDP lawmaker, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, whose party is part of the coalition government led by Lambrecht’s Social Democrats, called the decision to bring the son on the helicopter “unusual.”

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