Saturday April 10th 2021
“Victim of a media campaign”
Pfeiffer is no longer running for the Bundestag
Most recently, he has come under fire for allegations that he did not separate business from political matters. Now the CDU member of the Bundestag, Joachim Pfeiffer, is stepping down as a spokesman for economic policy after a “targeted hacker attack”. He is also not running again for the Bundestag.
The CDU member of the Bundestag, Joachim Pfeiffer, who has been criticized for his entrepreneurial activities, resigns as the parliamentary group’s economic and energy policy spokesman. Pfeiffer has also announced a withdrawal from the Bundestag for the autumn and sees himself as a victim of a campaign and criminal activities. “For three weeks I have had to defend myself against a campaign with which parts of the press are accusing me with fabricated claims that I have linked my political mandate to business activities in addition to the mandate in an unlawful way,” writes the CDU politician in one Statement dated Saturday received by Reuters news agency.
“These are false and have been refuted. I will continue to take legal action against untrue claims.” The allegations are that Pfeiffer is said to have benefited financially from his parliamentary mandate through private consulting activities. The allegations are not related to the affair surrounding the procurement of corona protective masks, which is shaking the Union parties.
Die Zeit reported that Pfeiffer’s constituency office and his consulting firm Dr. Joachim Pfeiffer Consulting have the same telephone number. According to research, Pfeiffer founded two companies after moving into the Bundestag, in addition to the consulting firm Maconso GmbH neither spatially nor in terms of personnel, so that offices and employees financed by tax money were apparently also used for company activities. Pfeiffer denied the allegations on “time” demand.
“Code of Conduct undermines the free mandate”
The Union MEP for his part now raises serious allegations against unnamed criminals: “In a way that I could never imagine, my constitutionally protected personal rights and those of my contractual partners were violated with the greatest criminal energy,” he writes. The Federal Office for Security and Information Technology (BSI), the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) as well as the State Criminal Police Office Baden-Württemberg are switched on “and are investigating criminal activities in connection with a targeted hacker attack”.
Pfeiffer also raises allegations against its own Union parliamentary group leadership. “The unreasonable, highly criminal actions and the faction-internal restriction of my independence as a member of the Bundestag bring me to a fork in the road,” he writes. It is right to have increased transparency after the mask affair. “With the code of conduct, however, entrepreneurial activities in addition to the mandate for management positions in the parliamentary group are de facto excluded. This nullifies the free mandate,” added Pfeiffer. After 19 years in the Bundestag, he will no longer stand for election in September and will return his nomination in the constituency.
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