Health
German finance minister takes own life as COVID-19 affects economy
The finance minister of Germany’s Hesse state Thomas Schaefer has committed suicide apparently after becoming worried over how to cope with the economic fallout that has derived from the coronavirus pandemic.
Minister-President of the German state of Hesse, Volker Bouffier, said in a recorded statement on Sunday, “We are in shock, we are in disbelief and above all, we are immensely sad.”
“It’s precisely during this difficult time that we would have needed someone like him,” he added.
Schaefer, 54, was found dead near a railway track on Saturday. The Wiesbaden prosecution’s office believes it is suicide. He leaves behind a wife and two children.
He was Hesse’s finance chief for 10 years. He kept good ties with companies, workers, and counterparts.
Germany’s financial capital Frankfurt, where the European Central Bank is also located, is a part of the Hesse state.
Popular and well-respected, Schaefer had long been touted as a possible successor to Bouffier, who like Schaefer, belongs to Angela Merkel’s center-right CDU party.