Enlarge image
Strobl before the investigative committee of the state parliament: "I would do it differently today"
Photo:
Bernd Weissbrod / dpa
"It just had to come out," says Thomas Strobl, his back dead straight, only his knees shaking nervously under the table in the plenary hall of the Stuttgart state parliament.
"The allegation of cheating, the back room would otherwise have been in the room." Baden-Württemberg's CDU interior minister spoke this Friday about a letter from a lawyer, a fax that he stuck through to a journalist.
The public prosecutor's office in Stuttgart is therefore investigating against Strobl.
It's about nothing less than the political future of the 62-year-old Deputy Prime Minister.
It is day one of the investigative committee of the Baden-Württemberg state parliament into a police affair that has long since grown into a Strobl affair.
The Minister of the Interior is the first and only witness to begin with, and he is questioned for many hours.
He provides information down to the smallest detail, stoically, occasionally annoyed.
The Greens are allowed to go first in the morning, then the CDU, and finally the opposition factions in the afternoon and into the evening.
Career Perks Against Sex?
The Strobl case is about passing on a letter from a lawyer in an ongoing investigation.
But the whole affair didn't start with a possible misconduct on the part of the interior minister.
It all started with an allegation of sexual coercion: the highest-ranking police officer in Baden-Württemberg is said to have harassed a colleague who reports to him, a chief inspector, after a night out in a pub together and promised her career advantages in exchange for sex.
The man is now also being investigated for spreading pornographic content, according to the government report for the committee of inquiry.
The official is said to have sent corresponding photos by mobile phone.
It is particularly piquant that the chief inspector recorded an incriminating video call with the suspect without his knowledge and handed it over to the authorities.
The police officer was then forbidden to conduct his official business and disciplinary proceedings were instituted against him.
His lawyer appealed and faxed the letter to the Home Office.
It was precisely this letter, in which the lawyer suggested a clarifying conversation, that Strobl passed on to a journalist.
The deputy prime minister sensed "a poisoned offer" because something should have been clarified "through official channels."
“I always had to expect this letter to be made public, for example by the lawyer,” Strobl told the committee, which is why he took matters into his own hands.
It was about "maximum transparency";
The minister defended his indiscretion, which he kept to himself for a long time in order to avoid being the focus of investigators himself, in order to »counter possible accusations of cheating«.
Strobl admits that he made "a mistake," but in his opinion it's not a punishable offense.
Then he adds: "I would do it differently today."
Nepotism in the recruitment process?
The whole thing is very tricky: the committee of inquiry should not only deal with the alleged misconduct of the police officer and the involvement of the interior minister.
It's about more: The SPD and FDP want to examine the promotion and assessment practice within the police force in Baden-Württemberg.
Had the suspected cop been heaved into his post past another candidate?
Was there nepotism when filling top positions?
The chairman of the Greens, Oliver Hildenbrand, is concrete.
The officer in question became Vice President of the State Criminal Police Office in November 2019 and just one year later at the age of 47 he was promoted to police inspector in Baden-Württemberg.
"Is such a rapid ascent common?" he asks.
more on the subject
Affair about official secrets in Baden-Württemberg: What are the investigators looking for with Interior Minister Strobl?By Christine Keck
Controversial Minister of the Interior in Baden-Württemberg: SPD and FDP initiate a committee of inquiry into the Strobl affair
"No, it's not that," Strobl replies.
The officer was also not a typical police officer, but a man with "excellent assessments."
Strobl is certain: »He was the most suitable candidate, which is why I agreed to the promotion proposal with a clear conscience.« He was sure »that it would be good for the state police«.
It turned out differently.
It was a "big disappointment" for him, Strobl admits, when he found out about the allegations at the end of 2021.
»Any sexual harassment is one too many, we have zero tolerance.«
Christiane Staab, a member of the CDU state parliament, wants to know whether there was no corridor radio.
Strobl says no: "I definitely haven't heard anything about sexual misconduct." And when Sascha Binder, the spokesman for domestic affairs for the SPD parliamentary group, asks what Strobl said about the social gatherings on Fridays after work on the fourth floor of the Ministry of the Interior with alcohol and possibly more knew, he says: "I was never in such a group and I have not heard that such groups existed either."
The opposition demands Strobl's resignation
Strobl is under enormous pressure.
But he has to fear the public prosecutor's office more than the verbal bombardment in the investigative committee.
An ongoing investigation against an interior minister is anything but commonplace.
The public prosecutor's office blamed him for instigating a journalist to cite forbidden files from the case and, it seems, is in no particular hurry to pass judgment on Strobl's future.
The opposition has said he should resign.
Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann is holding back.
The Greens are very keen not to lose their reliable partner in the green-black governing coalition.
The whole matter is not a burden on government work, he recently said.
Not yet, it says in the hallways of the state parliament.
If he lost his deputy, he would certainly have one or two problems.
