The starting point for the meeting of the parliamentary committee of inquiry into the cum-ex affair in Hamburg was special.

The delegates met in the ballroom of the town hall to question a Cologne chief public prosecutor, who is not only one of the experts in this field, but who, as part of her investigations, initiated searches in Hamburg a few months ago.

That guaranteed excitement on Friday afternoon.

And Anne Brorhilker did not disappoint.

For several hours she made it clear in her replies in calm words what she thought of the behavior of the Hamburg authorities in the cum-ex affair surrounding the Warburg Bank.

Short version: not much.

Matthias Wyssuwa

Political correspondent for Northern Germany and Scandinavia based in Hamburg.

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Marcus Jung

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The investigation committee in Hamburg wants to find out why the city's tax administration was prepared to forego tax reclaims of 47 million euros from the private bank Warburg in the cum-ex affair in November 2016.

In 2017, when it was again about 43 million euros, she first had to be instructed by the Federal Ministry of Finance to demand the money.