Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey (44, SPD) Photo: Annette Riedl/dpa
By Stephen Peter
This time it was definitely the real Klitschko! Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey (44, SPD) made up for her video call with Vitali Klitschko (51) on Thursday evening. The first time the town hall boss had called a fake Klitschko.
BZ learned: To ensure that nothing went wrong this time, there was a double check before the video call. Result: It really is the mayor of Kyiv!
The conversation was conducted in German and lasted almost an hour. Topics were the situation in the Ukraine and in Kyiv, the energy supply and the reception of Ukrainian refugees in Berlin.
At the beginning of the conversation, a cheerful Giffey joked: “So, I hope, dear Vitali Klitschko, that this time I’m talking to the real one.” He joked: “Uh, hm, I don’t know.” And then reassured her: “I do think I’m the real one.”
And: “I hope I’m talking to the real mayor of Berlin?” He did – the Senate Chancellery put a short excerpt of the conversation online shortly after the phone call.
Vitali Klitschko, Mayor of Kyiv Photo: picture alliance / ASSOCIATED PR
During the first conversation with the alleged Klitschko in mid-June, Giffey quickly became suspicious of the strange questions and then ended the call. Behind the Klitschko fake was the Russian comedian duo Vovan & Lexus – paid for by a Russian state company. The two had similar fake phone calls with mayors of other European capitals.
