The Bavarian opposition wants to be able to see documents that provide information about the party donations made by entrepreneur Gerd Schmelzer – if necessary by raiding them. He is the landlord of Söder’s favorite object, the Nuremberg Future Museum.
That’s a headline. “Razzia” and “CSU” in one sentence. A demand, very publicly effective, nothing more for the time being. But it bangs so beautifully. The Greens, SPD and FDP want to know when Nuremberg entrepreneur Gerd Schmelzer donated how much money to the CSU. If necessary, by search warrant, because the Christian Socialists refuse to disclose Schmelzer’s donations, where the Free State has rented its Future Museum in Nuremberg, home of CSU boss Markus Söder, who really wanted the museum. So she resents the “little Bavarian traffic light,” as the CSU likes to blaspheme. Pure desperation in the election campaign, scoffs CSU General Martin Huber. Good point. The Bayern traffic light is still right. The public has a right to transparency.
If on the one hand donations flow and on the other hand a long-term rental contract, all in all possibly 200 million euros expensive, is concluded, which even the Supreme Bavarian Court of Auditors (ORH) calls “landlord-friendly”, then there is a semblance of felt, maybe even of Purchasability that justifies the opposition’s probing. It is known that Schmelzer twice donated around 45,000 euros to the CSU. But were there other donations that flowed below the publication limit of 10,000 euros?
The CSU says: everything clean. And rightly refers to the party law, which guarantees anonymity to every donor who pays less than 10,000 euros per year to a single recipient. You can find that wrong, but it’s the law. Nevertheless, it is hypocritical when the CSU pulls out of the affair with the argument that “small donations” unfortunately, unfortunately “should not be published for legal reasons”. If the CSU would really like to disclose the donations if they could, then they can easily prove it: the CSU should ask Schmelzer to disclose all cash flows themselves.