BERLIN – A prominent German government minister announced her resignation Wednesday as a long-running controversy over allegations of plagiarism in her doctoral thesis nears its conclusion.
Franziska Giffey – a center-left Social Democrat who had been Germany’s minister for women and families since 2018 – said she will stick to her bid to become Berlin’s mayor in a state election on September 26.
In November, Giffey said she would stop using the academic title “doctor” after Berlin’s Free University decided to revisit the issue of her thesis.
Allegations of plagiarism prompted the university to review Giffey’s 2010 dissertation on the policy of the European Union’s executive body, the European Commission.
Giffey said that a university committee has now completed its examination and given her until June to respond, which she will.(AP)
