German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s appointee to the European Commission, Guenther Oettinger, is scheduled to face a hearing on today, January 9 (6-8.30pm) in Brussels on his new role as chief of the European Union budget.

Bloomberg reports that, his switch from the EU’s digital-economy commissioner follows an outcry over an October speech in Hamburg in which he reportedly referred to Chinese people as “slit eyes,” said women couldn’t succeed professionally without quotas and questioned the merits of gay marriage.

The hearing will be in the European Parliament, where some members lashed out at Oettinger for the comments that he later said “created bad feelings and may even have hurt people.” He might also be grilled for having failed to disclose a May 2016 flight from Brussels to Budapest on the private plane of a German businessman and lobbyist, New Europe reports.

According to Bloomberg, denying Oettinger the European budget job would be a political embarrassment for Merkel. It would also risk damage within the EU Parliament, whose two biggest political families (the Christian Democrats and Socialists) comprise the ruling coalition in Germany.

“Oettinger will probably make it through with bruises,” said Doru Frantescu, chief executive officer of VoteWatch Europe, a Brussels-based think tank.

The European Parliament has never vetoed a portfolio change by a standing European commissioner, New Europe reports.