Schaefer, 54, was discovered lifeless close to a railway monitor on Saturday. PHOTO: FILE
Thomas Schaefer, the finance minister of Germany’s Hesse state, has dedicated suicide apparently after turning into “deeply worried” over how to deal with the financial fallout from the coronavirus, state premier Volker Bouffier stated Sunday.
Schaefer, 54, was discovered lifeless close to a railway monitor on Saturday. The Wiesbaden prosecution’s workplace stated they consider he died by suicide.
“We are in shock, we are in disbelief and above all we are immensely sad,” Bouffier stated in a recorded assertion.
Hesse is residence to Germany’s monetary capital Frankfurt, the place main lenders like Deutsche Financial institution and Commerzbank have their headquarters. The European Central Financial institution can also be positioned in Frankfurt.
A visibly shaken Bouffier recalled that Schaefer, who was Hesse’s finance chief for 10 years, had been working “day and night” to assist firms and employees take care of the financial influence of the pandemic.
“Today we have to assume that he was deeply worried,” stated Bouffier, a detailed ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“It’s precisely during this difficult time that we would have needed someone like him,” he added.
Fashionable and well-respected, Schaefer had lengthy been touted as a attainable successor to Bouffier.
Like Bouffier, Schaefer belonged to Merkel’s centre-right CDU celebration.
He leaves behind a spouse and two youngsters.
