By Stefan Peter
The town hall ban for Lichtenberg’s construction councilor Kevin Hönicke (39, SPD) – apparently the matter is serious. “In order to prevent damage to the district, I had to act like this,” said district mayor Martin Schaefer (48, CDU) on Tuesday evening, explaining the surprising step.
Schaefer remained silent for a day and a half. On Tuesday morning, the press office only confirmed the exemption, but otherwise remained monosyllabic: “The district office does not comment on further details of the personnel matter.”
But the mayor doesn’t give any specific reason in his statement either. He simply says: “This decision is necessary – as difficult as it was for me.” He could not give any reason to “protect personal rights”. “The relevant authorities will take any further steps.”
It’s unclear who Schaefer means by this. A spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office commented on the BZ: “There are no open investigations against Mr. Hönicke recorded in our system.”
Anger among the Lichtenberg SPD – they described Schaefer’s actions as “irresponsible”. The party is not aware of any wrongdoing by Hönicke. The SPD said that the failure to provide a reason had led to “widespread speculation and prejudice among the public”. “This represents a unique event in Berlin’s local politics.”
The “Berliner Morgenpost” reported that Hönicke was accused of betraying sensitive official secrets. The politician immediately rejected this. There was speculation on “X” (formerly Twitter) about whether Hönicke was perhaps too close to the developer of a luxury project.
The city councilor for construction was summoned to the mayor’s office on Monday afternoon and, in the presence of the head of the legal office, received a letter with the subject “Temporary exemption from duty”. This is accompanied by a ban on entering all office buildings of the district office and a request to hand over your work cell phone and laptop. His work email account was immediately blocked. However, the letter did not contain any justification.
On Wednesday, the district office is expected to decide on a new division of responsibilities. It is still unclear who will temporarily take over Hönicke’s department.