Witnesses who don’t come is nothing new in the rich history of the investigative committees in the Bavarian state parliament. But that four witnesses don’t show up in one day is very unusual. The U-Committee canceled the mask for this Friday: Andrea Tandler, Munich PR entrepreneur and daughter of the former CSU Secretary General and ex-Minister Gerold Tandler, due to illness. And three representatives of the Swiss trading company Emix, who do not have to come as foreign citizens.
With the help of Andrea Tandler, Emix has sold corona protective clothing for more than 700 million euros to the health ministries in Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia and above all to the Federal Ministry of Health. The Tandler subsidiary, in turn, used CSU channels for its mediation services, for which it collected 48 million euros together with a partner.
On Friday, the Munich entrepreneur, who has so far avoided public appearances in this mask affair, should appear in the state parliament. In front of photographers and probably running television cameras, at least until the beginning of the meeting. The ill PR strategist is now spared that after the rejection by e-mail from the U-committee. The mail is said to have been accompanied by a medical certificate about an illness. It is nothing dramatic, according to state parliament circles about the health of the Tandler daughter.
The PR strategist will probably refuse to testify
The chairman of the U-Committee, the former Minister of Justice Winfried Bausback from the CSU, invited Andrea Tandler to a new appointment; in two weeks, for May 12th. The U-Committee assumed that the illness would be over by then. According to Bausback, as a precautionary measure, he informed the Tandler subsidiary through its lawyer that a renewed absence “is then only considered to be sufficiently excused subject to the provision and submission of a corresponding official medical confirmation of the reasons for the inability to attend”.
In plain language this means: In the event of another cancellation due to illness, it is no longer sufficient for Andrea Tandler to present a certificate from her doctor’s office. Then the Tandler daughter would have to be examined by a medical officer and certify that she could not come. The hearing of witnesses would not last long anyway. The PR strategist can refuse to testify as a suspect in investigations that are ongoing because of the mask deals. Nevertheless, the U-Committee wants to get a brief impression of Andrea Tandler.
The fact that a medical officer was called in has happened at least once in the history of the U-committees. That was in 1994, in a spectacular tax case involving the Lower Bavarian spa king, Eduard Zwick, who had been spared a lot from the Bavarian tax authorities for a long time. The committee also discussed the role of former finance minister Gerold Tandler, to whom Zwick, the king of baths, had once lent 200,000 euros. Even the CSU majority in the U-Committee in 1994 could not avoid criticizing this special Tandler-Zwick relationship.
One of the key witnesses on that U-Committee faxed in sick through his attorney. The committee then had this witness examined by a doctor employed by the state, who came to a clear conclusion. From a medical point of view, the witness was fully capable of being questioned. He only suffers from a mood disorder, i.e. an indisposition. The interrogation finally took place. In the state parliament, it is now assumed that Andrea Tandler does not require an official medical examination and that she will appear healthy in two weeks at the Maximilianeum, the seat of parliament. And if only to explain that she refuses to testify.