Reached for comment by Bild, Lindner confirmed the accident and said he did not know “the dog had since passed away.”
“The dog owner and I didn’t exchange contact information, and he didn’t introduce himself to me,” Lindner said. “I’m very sorry the dog died.”
Lindner was finance minister in former Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition government until he was sacked last November over a budget dispute, a move that effectively triggered snap elections.
During his tenure, Lindner — a proud petrolhead who once claimed his first word was “car” — strongly advocated for Germany’s automobile industry, opposing a European Commission proposal to wean the continent off fossil fuel-powered cars.
He owns a Porsche — which he was not driving at the time of the accident — and at one point came under scrutiny over his text messages with the automaker’s boss, Oliver Blume.
