It began as a small news item: German health minister's limousine stolen in Alicante, Spain.

But then people started asking questions like: Why does a German health minister need an armored limousine while on vacation in Spain? How did the limousine get there in the first place?

"I would like to know which of Mrs Schmidt's appointments required an official car and chauffeur in Alicante and why it was not possible for the embassy to arrange transportation," said Otto Fricke, the head of the parliamentary budget committee in an interview in German newspaper Bild am Sonntag.

The news comes just two months before a general election. This is not good news for Schmidt's Social Democratic Party (SPD), which is challenging Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the September 27 election.

Schmidt said she paid her own way to fly to Alicante, but had her chauffeur drive the Mercedes S-class limo 2,387 kilometers from Berlin to Spain.

Reiner Holznagel, head of the taxpayers' union in Germany, has also raised questions, according to Bild am Sonntag.

"We want an explanation as to why her official car had to be taken some 5,000 kilometres across Europe. Taxpayers' money should not be used to keep ministers in comfort," said Holznagel.

A spokeswoman for Schmidt said that the minister was only planning to use the car for official functions, such as a meeting with an organization of German expatriates living in Spain. She also said that the minister had rented a car in Spain for her own private use.

av/AFP/Reuters/BaS
Editor:Kateri Jochum