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Prosecutors have announced they are opening a formal investigation into German minister Friedrich Merz after a woman accused him of attempting to rape her at a party in 2011.
The charges against the 69-year-old minister ahead of legislative elections in early December were seen as one of several factors that led to Chancellor Olaf Scholz losing their parliamentary majority.
Scholz was criticized by a youth party member in Munich on June 6, who asked him why he had “put men accused of rape and violence against women at the Bundestag.” Merz, Germany’s first disabled MP elected in 2021, had previously ruled out resigning.
He was re-elected from his constituency in the Brilon, North Rhine-Westphalia. One of Merz accusers says she passed out after he offered her drugs after drinking a ‘glass’ of champagne and woke up with Merz naked in a hotel room.