Legislators grill election frontrunner

FRANKFURT: German legislators yesterday grilled Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, the frontrunner to succeed Angela Merkel in national elections this weekend, over a highstakes money-laundering probe.

Local media speculated that the scandal had unsettled allies in his centre-left Social Democratic Party, with less than a week to go before the September 26 vote.

The candidate turned up in person to the hearing in Berlin before the parliament’s finance committee after he was initially expected to take part by video link.

Scholz has also come under fire over Germany’s “cum-ex” tax fraud saga.