Two more ‘traffic light’ coalition politicians have been exposed as making things up in support of their government. This follows the public dishonesty of Chancellor Olaf Scholz concerning his false claim to have “significantly reduced” asylum applications and illegal entries into Germany.
In the 30-hour period following Scholz’s big lie, Green economics minister Robert Habeck mischaracterized €5 billion increased federal investment in the Dresden microchip factory of TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company), the world’s leading semiconductor foundry:
We are allowed to give the company money, that’s called aid, so that this company invests even more money here….With the ultra-modern chip factory, we are making progress in terms of new jobs, new industry and technological security for Germany and for Europe. (Emphasis in the original.)
TSMC has paid in just €3.5 billion towards the €10 billion plant. While Bosch, Infineon, and NXP are also contributors, the bulk of the funding (and risk) has come from Habeck’s government. The claim that state aid caused the TSMC investment is also untrue.
Not to be outdone, Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach reportedly kept up a misleading rationale for his COVID-19 policies during the global pandemic.
Should the risk assessment for coronavirus have been lowered—from “very high” to “high”—in February 2022? Lauterbach has made multiple claims that the decision to prevent a downgrade was purely medical. In contrast, the Bild newspaper has quoted the Federal Ministry of Health as stating:
Due to the very dynamic development and the risk of the health system being overloaded, the BMG therefore decided together with the RKI (Robert Koch Institute, ed.) to maintain the risk assessment for the health of the population at the end of February 2022. (Our emphasis).
While Lauterbach still denies pressuring the authoritative RKI to factor healthcare rationing into its COVID risk assessments, his ministry contradicted him while responding to a freedom of information request.
