A few days before two key regions and six months before the crucial legislative elections which will appoint Angela Merkel’s successor, a nasty corruption affair is poisoning the conservative camp, already weakened by the failures of the management of the pandemic.
Two of its deputies are suspected of having pocketed tidy commissions of several hundred thousand euros for having played, in spring 2020, intermediaries between mask manufacturers and several ministries responsible for their order.
The first case was exposed two weeks ago. Georg Nüßlein, 51, vice-chairman of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group and health expert for the conservative group in the Bundestag, is said to have received 660,000 euros for giving a little help to a company in Hesse. If he has given up running for a new term in the Bundestag and returned his CSU membership card, Georg Nüßlein, a member of the Bundestag for 20 years, still clings to his deputy chair, which he wishes to keep until the end of the current legislature. Technically, he could continue to sit as an unlabeled MP until the end of August. An option that Markus Söder, furious, considers unthinkable. The powerful CSU leader and Minister President of Bavaria ordered his MP to leave the Bundestag immediately. He asks him to donate the commissions he pocketed to charity.
A second affair has come to light. Nikolas Löbel, 34, one of the youngest deputies of Angela Merkel’s CDU, allegedly interceded on behalf of a Chinese company and received 250,000 euros. Pushed to resign by the governing bodies of the CDU, Nikolas Löbel also dragged his feet to give up his mandate as deputy. But the pressure in the ranks of the CDU was such to demand his immediate departure that he finally gave in: he left the Bundestag and the CDU immediately.
Pression
For Armin Laschet, president of the CDU and potential conservative candidate for the legislative elections in the fall, this second affair is a particularly hard blow. If at first the CDU no doubt hoped that this scandal would only affect its Bavarian little sister the CSU, the Löbel case proved the opposite. “Officials at the level of the country, regions and municipalities are doing everything to protect people,” Armin Laschet lectured. Whoever takes advantage of this crisis to do business and enrich himself personally is not a representative of the people and must leave Parliament as soon as possible. ”
Is this the tip of the iceberg? question the opposition parties. “These are not just isolated cases,” say the Greens. It is all a system. The small liberal FDP party demands for its part the opening of a parliamentary inquiry. Klaus Brinkhaus, leader of the CDU-CSU parliamentary group, promises that the light will be shed and conclusions drawn.
A provocation
For Angela Merkel’s CDU, a big beneficiary of the pandemic, this ugly affair could have unfortunate consequences. Because this scandal comes on top of a climate of growing frustration and anger. The number of infections on the rise, the prolonged semi-confinement, the slowness of the vaccination campaign, the lack of tests (as of this week alone, every German has the right to one free test per week. A commitment that could not prove for the moment only theoretical, given the scarcity of screening centers and the shortage of tests already announced)… All these failures are undermining the morale of the Germans, so far rather satisfied with the way the state had managed the pandemic. But the damage is done. For traders and small businesses that are on the verge of bankruptcy, this business is a provocation. The CDU, which the polls awarded some 40% of voting intentions not so long ago, is rapidly losing ground. The latest poll only credits her with 32%. A fall that could have serious consequences in Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg, where the regional events take place on Sunday. Especially since the constituency of Nikolas Löbel is located in Mannheim, in Baden-Württemberg, a Land led by a very popular green minister president. This corruption case further diminishes the already very weak chances of the CDU.
In this country with a virtuous reputation, we do not play around with corruption cases. The “pandemic bonus” enjoyed by the government, and at its head Angela Merkel, could therefore come to an end when this crucial year has barely begun. This affair will in any case put water to the mill of the AfD, the far-right populist party, which distrusts the corrupt political establishment its business.
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