Saturday March 13th 2021
Sanctions blocked for "years"
Walter-Borjans attacks CDU in mask affair
The declaration of honor obtained from the CDU MPs is nothing more than a panic reaction, says SPD chairman Walter-Borjans. For too long, the party has blocked every move towards more transparency – after the elections it is important to draw serious conclusions.
SPD leader Norbert Walter-Borjans demands more from the Union in the mask affair than all members of the parliament sign a declaration of honor. "The panic reaction after years of blocking any push for more transparency and tougher sanctions will only be credible if there are serious steps to implement it after the elections," said the SPD chairman of "Welt am Sonntag". The Union must now "decide and enforce effective rules" with all other parties.
"Even the declaration of honor sounds more like a helpless attempt at self-staging than the consistent punishment of greed and nepotism," criticized Walter-Borjans. The deputy FDP leader Wolfgang Kubicki described the declaration of honor in the "WamS" as evidence of the "enormous uncertainty of the Union shortly before the state elections" in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate on Sunday. "The CDU and CSU have a real fire under the roof."
By Friday evening, all members of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group had signed a declaration of honor requested by the parliamentary group leadership. Each individual MP had to declare in writing that they had not received any financial benefits from pandemic-related transactions. The group leadership reacted to the mask affair and other cases of controversial lobbying in their group. This had led to three MPs leaving the group in the past few days.
In the coming week, the Union parliamentary group leadership also wants to present the draft code of conduct, as group vice-president Gitta Connemann announced. With the ten-point plan, the transparency regulations in the law on parliament should be tightened significantly.
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