Government Jet Fault Prevents Klingbeil's Return from US

German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil has been left stranded in the United States after the government aircraft that carried him to a G20 meeting developed a technical fault, preventing his scheduled return to Berlin and forcing him to miss a key sitting of the federal cabinet.

Klingbeil had been due to depart from Greenville-Spartanburg airport in South Carolina on Tuesday afternoon local time. That schedule would have seen him land in Berlin in the early hours of Wednesday morning — in time to attend the cabinet meeting at which the federal government plans to advance an income tax reform that the minister himself had drafted. He had also intended to present the reform to the press following the session; that plan has been abandoned.

Tagesschau reported that no details of the technical fault have been disclosed. The damage is, however, understood to be repairable, with a midday departure in German time reported to be under way. In his absence from the cabinet meeting, Klingbeil may be represented by a state secretary, as is standard practice under German governmental procedure.

Reform draws criticism from CDU

The income tax reform had attracted scrutiny before Wednesday's session. Voices within the CDU argued that the proposed relief does not go far enough. Klingbeil rejected that criticism, stating that the government had reached agreement on the reform. He added that he remained open to further relief measures, but stressed that any such steps would first require identified funding.