Olaf Scholz managed the surprise.
The finance minister actually sits personally in the Bundestag's finance committee on Monday.
The allegations from the ranks of the opposition or the coalition partner that the SPD candidate for chancellor lacks the necessary respect for parliament are thus in vain.
The special session deals with the deficits in the anti-money laundering unit FIU, which belongs to customs and thus to Scholz's division.
It is a show event behind closed doors.
Six days before the election, his political opponents are trying to use the high-profile raids on the ministries of finance and justice of the week before last a little longer for their purposes.
But, as is usually the case on such occasions, the minister evades or repeats familiar things.
After the meeting, he even praised himself by saying that in his three years more has been achieved in the fight against money laundering than in the previous thirty years.
In view of the known shortcomings, that's pretty bold.
But soon there will be a choice.