Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger has refused to resign in connection with the funding scandal. “I see no reason to do so,” the FDP politician told journalists in Berlin on Monday in response to questions. “I did not give the order to have the funding consequences examined, nor did I want to,” the minister said.
Stark-Watzinger parted ways with her state secretary Sabine Döring on Sunday evening. The reason for this was the ministry’s handling of an open letter from university professors on the Middle East conflict. The lecturers had criticized the clearing of a camp of pro-Palestinian demonstrators at the Free University of Berlin. Stark-Watzinger, in turn, criticized this. In her opinion, the letter “ignores the terror of Hamas.”
Later, emails were made public which revealed that someone at a high level in the ministry had asked for an investigation into the extent to which statements in the protest letter from the Berlin university professors were relevant under criminal law and whether the ministry could cut funding as a consequence. The action sparked protests, saying that academic freedom was being compromised. Stark-Watzinger had announced that State Secretary Döring had ordered this investigation.
