The SPD in the state parliament demands that the secondary activities of the state parliamentarian Walter Nussel (CSU), the state government’s commissioner for bureaucracy reduction, be examined in the mask investigation committee. It is a scandal that another CSU member of the state parliament has “so combined” his mandate, his work as a commissioner and his private business activities, claims SPD parliamentary group leader Arif Taşdelen. He is also the Bavarian general secretary of his party. “This business practice, which is unfortunately so typical of the CSU, must be thoroughly investigated. It should actually also be in the interest of the CSU to avoid further unpleasant surprises.”
The reason for this is several events that the SZ had reported on. On the one hand, it is about a former company of Nussels, including Alfred Sauter, who fell out of favor with the CSU because of the mask affair. Just as the new Members of Parliament Act with much stricter transparency requirements came into force on April 1, 2022, Nussel sold his shares in the company to his son. As a result, he did not have to state his involvement in the state parliament, which involved the acquisition and management of a piece of forest in the Upper Palatinate – which the new rules would have required. There is no legal objection to this.
The SZ had also reported on Nussel’s own consulting company in the environmental sector, whose exact business figures cannot be viewed. In addition, the CSU politician had campaigned in the State Chancellery for a position paper on CO₂ certification in forests, prepared by a businessman from his Erlangen-Höchststadt constituency. This concept failed after being examined by the Ministry of Agriculture because, according to the government’s experts, it pursued purely economic interests and caused an unreasonable amount of administrative work. The opposite – the reduction of rules and regulations – would actually be Nussel’s job as the representative for reducing bureaucracy.
“The type of disclosure in individual cases is not regulated.”
In response to inquiries, Nussel himself had stated that the handover of the company to his son had been planned for a long time and was not causally related to the stricter law for members of parliament. And no business deals were intended from the advance with the position paper. “I’m not pursuing any economic interests based on my mandate. My job as a Member of Parliament is to help citizens and to pass on good, forward-looking concepts in various areas of life.” Everything was legally correct, explained Nussel.
The current U-Committee in the state parliament wants first and foremost to shed light on the mask purchases in the pandemic – but also to examine all transactions by government agencies since 2016 in which MPs may have been involved. According to Taşdelen, the committee would therefore offer the opportunity for a comprehensive questioning of Nussel. After the first report about Nussel’s company with Sauter and its transfer within the family, the SPD and FDP had suspected whether Nussel might have violated the Free State’s commissioner law. The law states that the persons appointed by the state government “have to disclose professional or commercial activities that are carried out in addition to the appointment”. So the question is whether Nussel shouldn’t have provided information about the company with Sauter before the tightening of the Law on Members of Parliament, the opposition said.
However, this is not the case. As the State Chancellery informed the SZ, the disclosure required by law is the responsibility of the respective officer himself. “The type of disclosure in individual cases is not regulated.” In the case of commissioners who are also deputies (this is not mandatory), the published additional income as a deputy alone would have “led to the fulfillment or even over-fulfilment of the duties under the Commissioner Act”. The state government maintains a total of eight officers for areas that are important to them – in addition to reducing bureaucracy, for example for Jewish life, integration or volunteer work. With the exception of the Commissioner for the Disabled, these are deputies from the government factions CSU and FW.