Before the appointment of the two investigative committees into the explosion in costs for the second Munich S-Bahn trunk line and the lease of the Nuremberg “Future Museum”, the state parliament opposition accuses the CSU of trickery. The dispute is about the order in which the committees will soon be decided by the state parliament. It depends on which party gets the presidency. According to the usual allocation, the chairmanship of the committee that was decided first goes to the CSU (with a deputy from the AfD) and the committee that was decided later goes to the Freie Wahler (with the CSU as deputy). While the opposition is pushing for the sub-committee on the main line to be put on the agenda first via the council of elders, the CSU in particular wants to first push through the sub-committee on the Nuremberg museum in order to chair it itself. “For pragmatic reasons,” assured Tobias Reiß, Parliamentary Secretary of the CSU, on Tuesday evening. Out of “panic fear,” suspected SPD parliamentary group leader Florian von Brunn.
You have to know: Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) is the focus of the U-Committee on the Nuremberg Museum. The museum was decided in 2014, at that time Söder was still finance minister – and for the opposition the driver of the project. The Supreme Court of Auditors (ORH) now classifies the contract, which guarantees the landlord an annual sum of 2.8 million euros until 2044, as “landlord-friendly” – and the Greens, SPD and FDP sense a scandal. The three factions therefore want to prevent Söder from being questioned in the sub-committee by a party friend who chairs the committee.
CSU would like to use Josef Schmid as head of the sub-committee
The CSU apparently does not want “that there is proper clarification,” said SPD parliamentary group leader Brunn. The fact that the CSU absolutely wanted to chair the Nuremberg Future Museum indicates to him that there could be “more to it” in the allegations against Söder. CSU man Reiß rejects this suspicion and refers to purely personal considerations. His parliamentary group would therefore like to appoint MP Josef Schmid as head of the U-committee, who, as a specialist lawyer for public building law in the parliamentary group, is the first choice for both committees. Because he was “preoccupied” with the main route in his previous function as Munich mayor, says Reiß, Schmid is only an option for the museum committee. According to Reiß, the CSU only wants to put this body on the agenda first for this reason and in order to be able to place an expert as chairman.
Meanwhile, Sebastian Körber (FDP) speaks of “procedural tricks” with which the CSU wants to take its party leader Söder out of the line of fire. Söder wants to “control the U-Committee from the State Chancellery and dictate the agenda,” said Körber on Tuesday. “You wouldn’t have to change the order if you had nothing to worry about.” The Greens, on the other hand, warn against getting bogged down in “little things” because of debates about the agenda. The legislative period will end in autumn 2023, so there is not much time left for educational work. The most important thing is to decide on the U-committees before Christmas, said Jürgen Mistol, parliamentary director of the Greens parliamentary group.