A lawmaker with German Chancellor Angela Merkel‘s party has died after collapsing next to her husband on a plane during a flight home to Germany.
Karin Strenz, 53, was flying back to Frankfurt from Varadero, Cuba with her husband when she lost consciousness on Sunday.
The Condor flight DE-199 made an emergency landing at Shannon Airport, Co Clare, Ireland, at about 7:36am.
The Boeing 767-300 was met at the terminal by airport personnel, National Ambulance Service paramedics, and police but rescuers were unable to save Strenz and she was pronounced dead at hospital.
It remains unclear what caused her death, but German media reported Strenz suffered from heart problems.
A post-mortem will be carried out to establish the cause of death and why she lost consciousness on the flight.
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German media reported Strenz was not in Cuba on government business, citing a parliament spokesperson.
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Garda HQ at the Phoenix Park in Dublin confirmed a woman on a flight that had landed at Shannon Airport had later died, but made no further comment, the Irish Times reported.
A statement said: ‘Gardaí and emergency services were alerted to a medical emergency on board a flight which landed at Shannon Airport, Co Clare, at approximately 7.30pm,’ it said of the Sunday morning landing.
‘A woman (50s) was taken to University Hospital Limerick from the aircraft. The woman was pronounced deceased a short time later. Arrangements have been made for a postmortem to take place.’
Irish Minister of Foreign Affairs and Defence Simon Coveney tweeted his condolences.
He said: ‘This is such a sad story. Our condolences & sympathy are with the family of Mrs Karin Strenz, her husband in particular, and to all her colleagues in the German Parliament and CDU Party.’
Flags at the German Bundestag will fly at half mast today, as is traditional with the death of a member of the parliament.
Regional leader of Angela Merkel’s CDU Eckhardt Rehberg paid his respects to Strenz on Sunday.
He said: ‘The focus is now of course on condolences for her husband and family.’
On Monday, the CDU association in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania said: ‘Karin Strenz passed away on a flight yesterday. The news came unexpectedly and caused great consternation.
‘The early death of Karin Strenz is undoubtedly a human tragedy. During these hours, our thoughts are with her husband, relatives and friends’.
Strenz had been a member of the German parliament since 2009, representing a constituency in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
She didn’t plan to seek re-election in Germany’s September 26 election.
Strenz and two other lawmakers were under investigation by prosecutors over alleged money transfers from Azerbaijan.
The group of three centre-right politicians allegedly took money from the authoritarian, former-Soviet republic and in return lobbied on the state’s behalf.
If found guilty, she faced up to five years in prison.
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Strenz was also fined more than £17,000 by the Bundestag earlier this year after she admitted in 2019 that a company she ran had accepted donations from an undisclosed source.
The company, Line M-Trade, reportedly received nearly £13,000 in donations from the unidentified source in 2014 and 2015.
During the same period, Strenz voted against a Council of Europe motion that called for on Azerbaijan to release political prisoners.
In 2018, Strenz was banned for life from the Council of Europe, the European human rights body, after a report found evidence of corruption.
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