A man slipped into a VIP convoy and hugged the German chancellor in 2023. Now he has to pay a fine

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BERLIN (AP) — A German court has fined a man for slipping into a VIP convoy for Chancellor Olaf Scholz in 2023 and giving him a hug as he prepared to board a plane at Frankfurt Airport, according to German news agency dpa.

The court gave the 50-year-old man a 4,500-euro ($5,093) fine and a two-and-a-half-year driving ban for endangering road traffic in conjunction with trespassing, dpa reported Tuesday. The man's name was not made public in line with German privacy rules.

The hug prompted an investigation into Scholz's security. The chancellor was unharmed. It occurred as Scholz was returning to Berlin after a celebration for the 25th anniversary of the European Central Bank.

Scholz’s spokesperson Wolfang Buechner at the time told reporters that the German leader “didn’t feel threatened at any point.”

The defendant was under the influence of drugs and was found only partially responsible for the crime, dpa reported. The man apologized in the courtroom.

Scholz's days as chancellor are nearing an end. The German parliament plans to meet on May 6 to elect Friedrich Merz as the country’s next leader, if all the parties in his proposed government approve a coalition agreement reached last week.