The Secretary of State for the Energy Transition of Germany, Patrick Graichen, a trusted person of the Vice Chancellor and Minister of Economy and Climate, Robert Habeck, was dismissed this Wednesday for alleged nepotism, in an outcome that hits the reputation of the Greens, the party of both, already in itself less valued lately in the polls.

Vice Chancellor Habeck announced Graichen’s departure during a press conference in Berlin, arguing that, with the situation, the politician had become “too vulnerable to be able to carry out his position.” The new Secretary of State for Energy Transition will be appointed in the near future.

Patrick Graichen, 51, had been criticized by opposition parties since the beginning of the month, after it was learned that he had proposed former Green deputy Michael Schäfer as director of the German Energy Agency (DENA), which was vacant, without mention that twenty years ago he had been her wedding witness. Habeck initially backed Graichen, saying that hiring decision had been a mistake, but the ministry opened an internal investigation.

Other family ties to Patrick Graichen then emerged. Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck revealed this Wednesday that Graichen participated in November 2022 in the approval of a 600,000-euro project presented by the environmental organization Öko-Institut, whose team includes his sister Verena and his brother Jakob, thereby breaching the regulations of the Ministry. At the time, Graichen was executive director of the Berlin-based think tank Agora Energiewende, before taking up the post of state secretary within the Ministry of the Economy in December 2021.

“People make mistakes, it’s been one mistake too many,” Habeck said at the press conference. “They are not isolated errors, you can see a general picture; On the whole, Patrick Graichen has become too vulnerable to be able to exercise his position effectively”, concluded Habeck with a very serious face. Verena Graichen is married to Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, Michael Kellner, but Habeck stressed that this relationship was known before the formation of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition government of social democrats, environmentalists and liberals.

The dismissed Graichen was the architect of the heating transition bill, with which the Ministry of Economy and Climate aspires to gradually eliminate oil and gas heating, which has been criticized as expensive and complicated both by the opposition and in within the ruling coalition, in particular by the Liberals.