North Rhine-Westphalia: Fire in the kitchen: Minister of Finance has to leave his office

Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - Because of his controversial budget plans, North Rhine-Westphalia's Finance Minister Marcus Optendrenk has been under continuous fire from the opposition and the Court of Auditors for weeks anyway. On Thursday evening, the 53-year-old CDU politician literally got too hot in his Düsseldorf office. During an ongoing video press conference, the alarm suddenly went off and the minister had to leave the house with his employees because of a kitchen fire. But the man from Viersen didn't let himself be fooled: On the way to the next appointment, he continued the press conference about his state budget by phone from the company car.