After mask affair
Coalition wants to tighten rules against bribery
The German Bundestag in Berlin. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Legally, lucrative mask deals for two CSU politicians remain without consequences. The traffic light coalition wants to quickly tighten the rules for MPs. The need is also seen in the Union.
After the decision of the Federal Court of Justice in the mask affair in favor of two CSU politicians, the coalition is quickly striving for a tightening of the law. Existing criminal liability gaps would have to be closed “as soon as possible”, said the legal policy spokeswoman for the SPD parliamentary group, Sonja Eichwede, the “Tagesspiegel”.
“We are already working intensively on an effective and practical tightening of the law,” said the SPD politician. “We are in close contact with each other within the traffic light groups and are in talks with the Federal Ministry of Justice.”
Hasselmann speaks of “shameless self-enrichment”
The coalition agreement states: “We will make the criminal offense of bribery and corruption of MPs more effective.” “We have to tackle that now,” said the leader of the Greens, Britta Haßelmann, the editorial network Germany (RND). “In view of the shameless self-enrichment of individual MPs from the CDU/CSU with mask deals, many people are rightly outraged that these MPs are now going unpunished,” said Haßelmann. SPD parliamentary group leader Dirk Wiese told the RND that bribery and corruptibility of MPs was “not a trifle, but now a crime”.
The Federal Court of Justice announced on Tuesday that it did not consider the accusation of bribery against a Bavarian member of the state parliament and a former member of the Bundestag to be fulfilled in the mask affair. In the first phase of the corona pandemic, the long-standing CSU MPs Alfred Sauter and Georg Nüßlein mediated the purchase of masks by the federal government and the Bavarian state government – and received lavish commissions for this.
More than 1.2 million euros
According to the BGH, a GmbH whose managing director is Nüßlein received 660,000 euros. A company over which Sauter has a significant influence even received more than 1.2 million euros. Nüßlein, who once sat in the Bundestag for the CSU, resigned from the CSU as a result of the affair, and Sauter, a member of the state parliament, left the parliamentary group. Sauter also gave up all party offices, in particular his seats on the CSU executive board and presidium as well as the CSU district chairmanship in Günzburg.
Green parliamentary group leader Konstantin von Notz found that the court was not to blame. “It had to decide on the basis of the existing legal regulations. These are not enough. That has now become painfully clear again, »von Notz told the «Tagesspiegel».
The CSU also sees the need for legal changes. “The law on bribery of MPs must be tightened,” said the legal expert of the CSU state group in the Bundestag, Volker Ullrich, of the “Augsburger Allgemeine”. The BGH decision shows that action must be taken. “Whenever there is a direct mandate reference and business arises from it, it should be covered by the provision in the future,” said Ullrich. He will campaign for this in the Union faction.
The decision of the BGH should be respected, the actions of the two politicians were still “fundamentally wrong”, emphasized Ullrich. “I don’t like making money from the crisis
have been punishable. But it remains political and moral
reprehensible.”