© Didier Weber (RTL)
The SREL affair, which concerns the mismanagement of the secret service in the context of Luxembourg's "Bommeleer" affair, has re-emerged five years later in a letter from a former secret agent to parliament this week.
The affair famously led Jean-Claude Juncker to resign from his role as prime minister. The acronym "SREL" is short for "Service de Renseignement de l'État", which is Luxembourg's secret service.
Reject report
Frank Schneider, a former head of operations in the secret service who was implicated in the scandal, has written to parliament requesting that the final report of the SREL inquiry commission be rejected. Schneider also sought to meet with parliament's party leader meeting and provide his own account.
This very demand was the topic of discussion in Thursday morning's party leader meeting. parliamentary president Mars di Bartolomeo provided party leaders with copies of the letter.
Little made public
The letter itself has been surrounded by rumours in the last few days and little has been made public about it.
Di Bartolomeo did not want to read out the entire letter, but informed the party leaders that Schneider would like to meet.
Open report
In terms of Schneider's request to reject the final report of the SREL commission's inquiry, di Bartolomeo simply said that an open report is an open report. This appears to indicate that di Bartolomeo will not support rejecting the report. Schneider additionally requested that the paragraphs in the report involving him be removed. This request was passed on to data protection officers.
De Frank Schneider / © RTL-Archivbild
Party leaders reacted to Schneider's request by describing it as "crazy" and "eccentric". Di Bartolomeo was more diplomatic. He expressed his surprise at the request to reject an open report, claiming that was something he had certainly never heard of before. As for meeting party leaders, he also claimed that he had never seen such a meeting occur in his role.
Petty political reasons
Schneider believes, and indeed is protesting against, that he was treated as a guilty party in the SREL affair for petty political reasons. He believes he has been treated unfairly by members of the commission inquiry and that their report is inaccurate and defames him.
Schneider appears to be trying to defend himself by any means possible. It is has been remarked upon by many involved in this affair that it has arisen in the months before the next election.
