- Mansoori defends the release of Messari-Becker
After the dismissal of State Secretary Lamia Messari-Becker, Hesse's Minister of Economics, Kaweh Mansoori (SPD), defended the move in the economic committee of the state parliament. In a special session of the committee in Wiesbaden, he referred, among other things, to the ministry's ability to document the breach of trust. Mansoori had explained about ten days ago that he was dismissing Messari-Becker due to unspecified "misconduct." He asked Minister President Boris Rhein (CDU) to put the civil engineer on temporary retirement. Messari-Becker rejected the accusations.
Minister refers to public interest
At the initiative of the Green Party faction, the committee also discussed why the minister mentioned "misconduct" in his public statement, although political officials can be put on temporary retirement without such a reason. Mansoori said there had been a public debate with much "speculation." Therefore, he believed the public had a right to know more about the disrupted trust relationship. That's why he drafted the statement that way, he said. He always chooses his words carefully.
Mansoori describes cooperation of the management as "professional"
When asked about the specific misconduct, the minister did not comment and referred to the case as a confidential personnel matter. According to Mansoori, there were talks with Messari-Becker about the matter, but they did not restore the disrupted trust relationship. A final talk about the proceedings did not take place. Mansoori described the cooperation in the management, which also includes the second state secretary, Umut Sönmez, as "professional" for the past months.
Mansoori stated that mistakes could be addressed and dealt with in his ministry. "There are mistakes that go and mistakes that don't," he said. There are also second chances - but in this case, the trust relationship could not be restored.
The CDU, being the ruling party in Hesse, was not directly involved in the dismissal of State Secretary Lamia Messari-Becker, but Minister President Boris Rhein, who represents the CDU, was asked by Kaweh Mansoori (SPD) to put Messari-Becker on temporary retirement. Despite the dismissal, the CDU has maintained a professional relationship with the management team in the ministry, including Umut Sönmez, the second state secretary.
