Monday, March 8th, 2021
Enrichment at mask deals
Union is examining possible further cases
Did members of the CDU and CSU profit from the problems with material procurement in the Corona crisis? The pressure on Georg Nüßlein and Nikolas Löbel is great, but both cling to their mandates. Greens leader Habeck suspects a structural problem in the Union.
The affair about the profits of members of the Bundestag in the procurement of corona protective masks is putting the Union under severe pressure shortly before important state elections. The MPs Georg Nüßlein and Nikolas Löbel have announced their exit from the Union parliamentary group, but want to keep their mandate, although the party and parliamentary group leaders are demanding their withdrawal. Both are said to have collected six-figure commissions for brokering mask shops. Group leader Ralph Brinkhaus does not rule out that there are more such cases in his own ranks.
"We will use the next few days to clarify all doubtful cases accordingly, because we also believe that we are guilty," said the CDU politician Brinkhaus in the ARD. It could not be that MPs enriched themselves in the country's worst crisis. "We not only hold talks, we also ask for appropriate information."
Brinkhaus asked Nüßlein and Löbel to give up their mandates immediately. CDU boss Armin Laschet expressed himself similarly: Anyone who does business with the protection of people in crisis is not a representative of the people, Laschet told the ARD capital studio. "And he has to leave Parliament as soon as possible." CSU boss Markus Söder tweeted: "All those affected should immediately clear the table and draw fundamental conclusions." CDU General Secretary Paul Ziemiak also called on Löbel and Nüßlein to leave the Bundestag immediately. "Such behavior is indecent and we are ashamed," he said on "Bild live". "And if you have held up your hand like that, then you have to resign. I am speaking for the whole party: both must now take the step."
Nüßlein sees himself wrongly accused
With the affair shortly before the state elections in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate, the Union is increasingly in dire straits. He thinks that the two want to hold on to their mandates is wrong, said Brinkhaus, but admitted that the group's hands were tied: "We have a handle on who is a member of the group, we have no handle on who is a member German Bundestag is ", he said. "It is now a moral question for both colleagues how to deal with it."
The Munich Public Prosecutor's Office is investigating Nüßlein, among other things, because of the initial suspicion of corruption and bribery of elected officials. The CSU politician had already announced on Friday that he was resigning from his position as parliamentary deputy of the Union and would no longer run for the Bundestag. On Sunday evening Nüßlein said through his lawyer: "The public prejudice of my person has reached a level that is unbearable for me, but above all for my party." In order to avert disadvantages from the CSU, he left the parliamentary group with immediate effect, but wanted to keep his mandate until the end of the electoral term. "I combine this with the expectation that the initial suspicion of criminal acts directed against me will be refuted while I am a member of the German Bundestag."
Klingbeil demands repayment
The CDU man Löbel admitted participation in controversial deals with corona protective masks on Friday. His company received commissions of around 250,000 euros because it brokered purchase contracts for masks between a supplier and two private companies. In a first step, Löbel had only withdrawn from the Bundestag's Foreign Affairs Committee. On Sunday morning, the 34-year-old announced that he would resign his mandate at the end of August and immediately leave the Union faction.
SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil said that the behavior of Löbel and Nüßlein harmed confidence in politics as a whole. "That is why it is absolutely right that both of them have to resign their mandate immediately," he said on "Bild live". Klingbeil also asked both of them to hand over the profits they are said to have drawn from the brokerage of mask deals. It is about "personal enrichment", he explained. "And this money has to be returned. I expect that."
Green leader Robert Habeck sees a fundamental problem in the Union in view of the affair. "No party is immune to individual cases of personal missteps. But in the case of the Union, there is a lot to suggest that it is a structural and systematic problem," said Habeck of the German press agency. "This reveals a crude understanding of power among the CDU and CSU that damages trust in the integrity of democratic institutions." The processes would have to be processed systematically. "Now everything has to be on the table – and now means now."
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