"Still optimizer": Löbel is causing new outrage with his resignation

"Still a benefit optimizer"
Löbel causes new outrage with his resignation

After massive pressure from his own party, the CDU member of the Bundestag, Nikolas Löbel, announced his retirement from politics. But his critics are not resigning quickly enough. You calculate which advantages Löbel is apparently still securing for itself.

The announcement by the CDU member of the Bundestag, Nikolas Löbel, that he would resign his mandate in the summer did not smooth the waves in the mask affair. Löbel's declaration was "the final proof of the lack of character aptitude to exercise a political mandate," tweeted his party and parliamentary group colleague Matthias Hauer. "I asked Nikolas Löbel to resign his mandate in the German Bundestag immediately," said CDU regional group leader and parliamentary group deputy head Andreas Jung of the "Stuttgarter Zeitung" and the "Stuttgarter Nachrichten".

Löbel had previously announced that he would resign from his Bundestag mandate at the end of August and no longer run for the next Bundestag. At the same time, he will end his membership in the CDU / CSU parliamentary group immediately. "I take responsibility for my actions and draw the necessary political consequences."

Hauer and other critics inside and outside the Union come across that Löbel would like to keep his mandate for months despite the admitted misconduct. During this time, he would still be entitled to around 50,000 euros in parliamentary allowance and around 9,500 euros in transition allowance. The chairman of the left parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Dietmar Bartsch, called Löbel's decision on Twitter "overdue". "But only to resign the Bundestag mandate in 6 months, obviously has to do with pension entitlements. Still a benefit optimizer," wrote Bartsch.

The now announced withdrawal in installments, Löbel had only managed to get through to great pressure from his own party. Among other things, the CDU top candidates in the upcoming state elections in Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg had demanded his immediate resignation and that of the CSU Bundestag member Georg Nüßlein. The Mannheim district association, of which Löbel is the chairman, is currently advising on further possible consequences.

Löbel is said to have earned 250,000 euros by placing protective mask orders. He had admitted mistakes and withdrew from the Foreign Affairs Committee. The CSU politician Nüßlein, on the other hand, is accused of having collected more than 600,000 euros through a consulting firm for mediating government contracts with a protective mask manufacturer. After raids, the Munich Public Prosecutor's Office spoke of an initial suspicion of corruption and bribery of elected officials. Nüßlein, who had the allegations rejected, had given up his position as parliamentary deputy on Friday and also no longer wants to run for the next election.

FDP wants U committee

The development policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Christoph Hoffmann, told ntv.de that only the immediate resignation of the mandate by Löbel would be "a real solution and admission of guilt". "I insist because this is the only way to really avert further damage to parliamentary work," explained Hoffmann. He also pointed out that the CSU MP Nüßlein would also receive "about another 60,000 euros in diets by the end of the legislative period".

The deputy head of the FDP parliamentary group, Michael Theurer, had previously called for an investigative committee into the mask affair. Such a committee was "the inevitable need of the hour for a complete and ruthless investigation of the government's failure," explained Theurer. It is "no longer about individual cases or just about being ripped off by CDU and CSU MPs". "The credibility of the federal government, and indeed the German state itself, is fundamentally at stake," explained Theurer.

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