Helene Fischer and Herbert Grönemeyer, Joachim Löw and Thomas Gottschalk: If you will, Stephan Mayer is now in the best of company – he is represented by Christian Schertz, one of the best-known media lawyers in Germany. The Berlin lawyer likes to argue, a lot and notoriously artistically for his clients. Mayer’s quarrel with the tabloid Colorful, which led to his resignation as CSU general secretary on Tuesday, could find a longer continuation in court thanks to Schertz. Almost inevitably, more unpleasant details of the delicate matter would then come to light. But is that really in the interest of the CSU?
The full extent of the shock that Mayer’s departure triggered in the party after less than three months will only really be felt on Thursday. Two prominent statements make it clear how agitated the CSU is, in which one could hardly speak of calm before. The current chairman Markus Söder can confidently feel addressed directly by the contribution to the debate by former party leader Erwin Huber, even if his name is not mentioned. The CSU is in a “dramatic situation,” according to Huber’s powerful finding. This was not only caused by Mayer’s “blackout” and the “indisputable moral missteps” of some mask dealers, but also “the huge loss of votes in the federal elections” and “pandemic management”.
The advice that Huber gives reads like a very comprehensive work assignment for Söder until the 2023 state elections: “intensive teamwork”, “ruthless clarification of the misconduct of individual elected officials”, “absolute focus on Bavaria”. In the current situation, says Huber, “it’s not election gifts that build confidence, but a policy of financial stability and consolidation.” You have to try very hard not to relate this sentence to Söder’s moderately successful 2018 election campaign strategy, which was essentially based on election gifts.
“Respect, consideration, sense of proportion”
State President Ilse Aigner also expressed concern about the state of the CSU in an interview with the dpa. Values such as “respect, consideration, a sense of proportion” have “been lost in some places in the party recently” – like recently “we must not continue”. Aigner then allowed himself to outline such a sporting requirement profile for Mayer’s successor that Söder would have difficulties in fulfilling it: the new Secretary General must be a party expert with “sufficient experience”, a “credible doer” and “good Communicator” who above all “represents rural areas”. Söder might also like to know which wonder-wuzzi from the country Aigner has in mind.
In any case, the CSU members of the state parliament should have noticed with pleasure that Aigner felt it could mean someone from their midst. The candidates who have been traded so far are mainly in the Bundestag: Florian Hahn, Dorothee Bär, Stefan Müller. And Georg Eisenreich and Michaela Kaniber, who would be the betting favorite if British bookmakers were to deal with the CSU, sit in the cabinet. Some in the CSU are now bringing MP Martin Huber into play, 44 years old, “one who has the intellectual skills for the job” and is also at home in the country, in the Altötting district. Others immediately dismiss the name Huber and ask whether one can seriously imagine Söder appointing Horst Seehofer’s long-standing personal advisor? Just.
A mud fight is looming
While Söder is looking for a suitable applicant (a result could be available as early as this Friday, according to the CSU), the legal dispute between Stephan Mayer and Colorful-Journalist Manfred Otzelberger Form. Otzelberger, whom Mayer is said to have threatened with “annihilation” on the phone at the end of April because of his research, is said to have demanded through a Munich law firm that Mayer stop threatening him from now on. By Wednesday, 2 p.m., Mayer was supposed to make a corresponding statement, which the CSU politician apparently did not do.
In the lawyer’s letter, Mayer’s alleged failures (“I’ll find you, I’ll follow you to the end of your life”) are described as massive intimidation and a threat to Otzelsberger’s existence. Under criminal law, this is classified as attempted coercion or even attempted blackmail. These are serious allegations that give an idea of how violent it could be in court. The conflict would be carried out in public.
Mayer, who is still a member of the Bundestag, defends himself against the allegations through his prominent media walt Schertz. “We see no basis for the claims asserted by Burda against my client, either in terms of criminal or civil law,” says Schertz, before counterattacking. Against the Colorful Legal action has already been taken with the aim of banning reporting on Mayer’s private life.
The Bunte is to blame for the escalation
The gossip magazine had made it public that Mayer had an illegitimate child that he allegedly did not take care of. Schertz calls this “blatantly illegal reporting”. Burda-Verlag sees things differently and is unlikely to give in – just like Schertz and Mayer. The content of two telephone calls with Mayer, which Otzelberger made public, was communicated to the dpa denied with “ignorance”. And only added: “In the event that this is the case, I retrospectively consider the choice of words to be inappropriate.”
Lawyer Schertz now argues that the starting point for the exchange of blows on the phone is the intervention brightly colored been in Mayer’s private life. It is understandable that the gossip magazine was to blame for the escalation, not Mayer. “The exact wording can no longer be clarified,” says Schertz. And as a precaution, his client apologized anyway.
If both sides stick to their views, the court dispute could drag on for months – perhaps even until 2023, when the state elections are due in autumn.
One thing is certain: Mayer no longer gets his statements in the two telephone calls with Otzelberger, which were devastating for a top politician, from the media and from the world. So the legal question remains as to whether reporting on his presumed child was permissible. This could easily lead to a fundamental dispute over when and to what extent the press is allowed to report on the private lives of politicians. Due to Mayer’s rants on the phone and his resignation as CSU general secretary, the matter with the child has long since become a political issue.