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Andreas Scheuer: Greens are calling on transport ministers to resign again because of the toll debacle

2021-01-28T08:32:23.827Z


Transport Minister Scheuer defends himself against the allegations in the investigation committee on the toll. The Greens consider the evidence to be "overwhelming". From the SPD it is said that Scheuer cannot be proven to be a lie.


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Andreas Scheuer: Did the minister lie to parliament?

Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka / dpa

The Bundestag committee of inquiry into the failed car toll is coming to an end.

Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) should be questioned again on Thursday afternoon.

The chairman of the Greens in the committee, Oliver Krischer, considers the evidence against Scheuer to be "overwhelming" and again calls on the minister to resign.

The minister had "lied to parliament and repeatedly broken budgetary and public procurement law," Krischer told the Augsburger Allgemeine.

The evidence against Scheuer was "actually enough for three resignations."

Scheuer is the only witness invited to the meeting.

The toll investigation committee is working on the failure of the former CSU prestige project.

As Minister of Transport, Scheuer had already signed contracts to collect the toll at the end of 2018, even before there was final legal certainty about the toll.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) then overturned the plans in June 2019.

Scheuer rejects the allegations of violations of budgetary and public procurement law.

In his first questioning in the committee at the beginning of October 2020, the CSU politician contradicted information from the operating companies that they had made an offer to wait for the ECJ ruling to sign the contracts.

The operating companies that were once planned are demanding 560 million euros in damages after the federal government terminated the contracts immediately after the judgment.

Arbitration proceedings are ongoing.

The federal government rejects the financial claims.

The coalition partner SPD sees Scheuer's future CSU party on the train.

The SPD chairwoman in the Bundestag investigation committee, Kirsten Lühmann, told the dpa news agency: "The minister has repeatedly stated that he has not made any mistakes and will therefore not resign." , CSU boss Markus Söder has to decide.

Lühmann said there were many contradicting statements.

It remains a mystery how Scheuer and the former State Secretary Gerhard Schulz came to the conclusion that a negative judgment by the ECJ was very unlikely.

Witnesses also from the Ministry of Transport had stated that it was considered possible that the legal opinion of the applicant Austria would prevail.

"It's one word against the other"

Regarding the alleged offer by the operator to wait before signing the contract for the car toll, the SPD politician said: “We will not be able to clarify it, no matter how hard the opposition is picking on it.

It stands testimony against testimony. «Managers of the operators had reported to the committee that they had made such an offer to Scheuer.

The CSU politician, on the other hand, said there was no offer as far as he remembers.

Lühmann said that the minister could not prove a lie.

But there was an organized irresponsibility in the ministry.

"The responsibility was shifted back and forth."

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mes / dpa / AFP

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-01-28

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