The Union’s Fraktionschef, Friedrich Merz, has frequently used the Federal Armed Forces’ flight services for official trips abroad. According to a response from the Defense Ministry to a question from the Left Party’s Fraktionschef, Sören Pellmann, Merz has utilized the flight services on 11 occasions in the past 12 months. The destinations of the trips included Brussels, Paris, Tel Aviv and Rzeszow in Poland, with a stopover in Kiev, a city that has been a popular destination for German politicians in recent years.
In total, Merz has used the flight services 30 times during the previous legislative period, with an additional 8 “preparation flights” needed to transport the aircraft and crew from the Luftwaffen-Standort in Cologne-Wahn to Berlin.
Apart from Merz, only Rolf Mützenich, the SPD’s Fraktionschef, has used the flight services, flying from Berlin to Rzeszow and back for an Ukraine-related trip. The other Fraktionsvorsitzenden did not use the flight services.
Pellmann, the Left Party’s Fraktionschef, criticized Merz, saying that he had acted unresponsibly with public funds and had already behaved like a Chancellor in waiting, stating that “who acts unresponsibly with public funds in the opposition and behaves like a Chancellor in waiting, is not to be expected to act responsibly for Germany in the future.”
The Union’s Fraktion defended Merz’s travel practices, stating that he had used the flight services for a few important European partner meetings and that the use of the services was always in accordance with the “Guidelines for the use of Luftfahrzeuge der Flugbereitschaft”.