Bundestag
Union fails with the establishment of a Warburg Committee
The Bundestag voted against an underground committee to investigate the tax scandal at the Warburg Bank in Hamburg. photo
© Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
The Union request for a Warburg committee of inquiry was rejected by the traffic light. Now the Union wants to go before the Federal Constitutional Court.
The CDU/CSU parliamentary group failed in its attempt to Bundestag to appoint a committee of inquiry to investigate the tax scandal at Hamburg’s Warburg Bank. She did not get the necessary majority for her application in parliament because the coalition factions SPD, Greens and FDP voted against it. The Union now wants to appeal to the Federal Constitutional Court.
The process is absolutely unusual. Committees of inquiry are considered one of the most important minority rights in the Bundestag. This is also stipulated in the Basic Law. “The Bundestag has the right and, upon the request of a quarter of its members, the obligation to set up a committee of inquiry,” says Article 44, paragraph 1.
Traffic light: Application unconstitutional
The traffic light factions argued that the Bundestag should not take any unconstitutional resolutions. But that is what the Union’s application for initiation is about, because processes in Hamburg’s state politics are to be examined in large parts.
“We have to respect our constitution and the distribution of powers,” said Johannes Fechner from the SPD. The Union is not even about factual clarification. “They want to throw as much dirt as possible on the chancellor so that something sticks.”
Patrick Schnieder (CDU) rejected the allegation of unconstitutionality for the Union. “The chancellor is pulling in his tail. He doesn’t face such a committee of inquiry. If he had nothing to fear, he would.” One will sue for this fundamental right of the opposition in Karlsruhe.
It’s all about this
The committee of inquiry is supposed to be about the role of Olaf Scholz (SPD) as the former head of government in Hamburg, former federal finance minister and current chancellor. He is accused of having influenced the “Cum-Ex” tax affair at the Warburg Bank during his time as Hamburg mayor. Scholz always rejected this. “Cum-Ex” caused the state total damage estimated at at least twelve billion euros.
Investors had had a one-off capital gains tax refunded several times with the help of banks. The affair is already being worked up by a parliamentary investigative committee of the Hamburg Parliament.
The refusal to set up a committee is “a serious decision that we don’t take lightly either,” said Stephan Thomae from the FDP.
His Greens colleague Andreas Audretsch emphasized that the rights of minorities are of the utmost importance to his party. “There is no doubt and nothing to interpret.” AfD and Left support the Union’s motion. The fact that the traffic light rejects him is “a very consistent breach of the constitution,” said Kai Gottschalk from the AfD.