A German state finance minister of the Hesse region, which includes Frankfurt, has been found dead. According to the authorities, it appears to be suicide while the state’s governor has also said that he was deeply worried over the fallout from the coronavirus crisis.
German minister commits suicide
The body of Thomas Schaefer, a 54-year-old member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, was found on railway tracks at Hochheim, near Frankfurt, on Saturday. Schaefer had been Hesse’s state finance minister for a decade.
Meanwhile, the police and prosecutors said that factors including the questioning of witnesses and their own observations at the scene led them to conclude that Schaefer killed himself.
The state governor Volker Bouffier said, “Schaefer was worried about “whether it would be possible to succeed in fulfilling the population’s huge expectations, particularly of financial help.”
He further added, “I have to assume that these worries overwhelmed him. He apparently couldn’t find a way out. He was in despair and left us. We are in shock, we are in disbelief and above all, we are immensely sad.”
He also said, “Schaefer worked “day and night” to support companies affected by the pandemic. It’s precisely during this difficult time that we would have needed someone like him.”
Germany’s federal and state governments have drawn up huge aid packages to cushion the blow of largely shutting down public life to slow the spread of Covid-19.
While Germany has reported more than 58,000 cases of coronavirus, fewer than 500 people have died after becoming infected with the virus. However, but that hasn’t stopped the country from suffering the effects of the economic fallout from the pandemic.
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