À Berlin, une polémique sur des subventions emporte l’élue à la Culture
Sarah Wedl-Wilson, Berlin's senator for culture, resigned after the Berlin Court of Auditors ruled that €2.6 million in public subsidies for 13 antisemitism-fighting projects were awarded illegally, bypassing regulatory checks and violating budget law. The controversy intensified when a parliamentary inquiry revealed that CDU politicians, including Christian Goiny and Dirk Stettner, pressured her to approve the funds immediately, coordinating with the Israeli embassy, despite warnings from state secretary Oliver Friederici, whom she later dismissed. Stefan Evers, the finance senator, has been appointed interim successor until Berlin's parliamentary elections in September.
This matters because it exposes deep tensions between political expediency and legal governance in Berlin's cultural funding, undermining public trust in the administration of arts subsidies. The scandal also highlights the volatile nature of cultural leadership in the city, following the resignation of Wedl-Wilson's predecessor Joe Chialo over budget cuts, and raises questions about the independence of cultural officials under political pressure.