The RBB Broadcasting Council is planning to throw out Schlesinger, who has already resigned. According to a media report, this emerges from a corresponding draft resolution. Another body will decide on the severance payment.
An important week is coming up in the affair surrounding the resigned ARD and RBB boss Patricia Schlesinger. In view of the still unresolved allegations against the 61-year-old, the broadcasting council of the public broadcaster will meet in Berlin on Monday at 4 p.m. As the "Tagesschau" reported, Schlesinger's dismissal should be decided.
"The RBB Broadcasting Council is recalling Patricia Schlesinger from her position as director of the RBB with immediate effect," quoted the "Bild" newspaper from the draft resolution by Council boss Friederike von Kirchbach. "The dismissal is due to reasons in the person of Ms. Schlesinger that would justify an extraordinary termination of the service contract by the RBB."
The reason for the termination was "the billing of entertainment costs for an invitation with dinner in Ms. Schlesinger's private apartment on February 12, 2022 to the RBB as business necessary, although this was entirely or at least partially of a purely private nature," the newspaper quoted from the draft resolution . According to the report, two-thirds of the Broadcasting Council must vote in favor of being kicked out. The RBB board of directors must decide whether Schlesinger will then receive a severance payment and keep her pension entitlements.
Speculations about a possible severance payment for Schlesinger, who had been RBB director since 2016, arose because she insisted on contractual clauses in her letter of resignation to the RBB supervisory bodies and brought her lawyer into play. The employment relationship would therefore end at the end of February 2023. Schlesinger was ready to shorten that - if it was ensured that it was a "contractual waiver".
Schlesinger faces numerous allegations of nepotism. In addition to the 61-year-old, the focus is on the chief controller Wolf-Dieter Wolf of the ARD broadcaster Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB), who has also resigned. Both rejected the allegations. It is also about questionable orders for Schlesinger's husband at Messe Berlin, where the chief controller was also the head of the supervisory board until his resignation there.
The public prosecutor's office in Berlin is investigating against Schlesinger, her husband and ex-"Spiegel" journalist Gerhard Spörl, and Wolf on suspicion of infidelity and acceptance of benefits. The whole case is about details such as controversial consulting contracts for an RBB construction project, an expensive company car for Schlesinger, the quoted meal with guests in her private apartment at RBB's expense with allegedly wrong bills, a hefty salary increase to 303,000 euros plus the said bonus -System. Schlesinger's trip to London was also questioned.
Meanwhile, after her resignation from RBB and the ARD leadership, there are now consequences for Schlesinger at the ARD film subsidiary Degeto. Degeto Film GmbH, based in Frankfurt am Main, announced: "The acting director of RBB Hagen Brandstätter has dismissed Ms. Schlesinger as a member of the Degeto supervisory board."
