So far, Philipp Amthor's political path has only known one direction. For the eloquent CDU young star from Western Pomerania, things always went upwards, and he has the CDU state chairmanship in his sights. But working for a US company scratches the image of the 27-year-old.
Schwerin / Berlin (dpa) - The work of the CDU member of the Bundestag Philipp Amthor for a US company is now causing clear criticism within the party.
"With something like this you make yourself politically vulnerable. A member of parliament should always be aware of the consequences of your own actions. Loss of trust weighs heavily," said the provisional state chairman of the CDU Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Eckhardt Rehberg, on Monday of the Deutsche Presse- Agency in Schwerin. On "Bild Live" he commented on the actions of Amthor, who is running for the chair of the state CDU, with the words: "It wasn't exactly smart and clever what he did."
Rehberg, who is also a member of the Bundestag, urged his party colleagues to ensure full clarification. He had to put everything on the table, including how expensive air travel and hotel stays were and who paid for them. According to Rehberg, Amthor is expected to attend the state board meeting on Friday in Güstrow. There, the 66-year-old announced that the future procedure for the planned board election would be discussed. After Justice Minister Katy Hoffmeister's withdrawal, Amthor is the only candidate for the election that had been postponed due to the corona pandemic.
Amthor is criticized for having campaigned for the US company Augustus Intelligence in letters and discussions with the federal government. After a "Spiegel" report was published, Amthor had retrospectively described his work for the US company as a mistake on Friday. Although he officially reported his sideline work for the company to the Bundestag administration last year. "Nevertheless, I made myself politically vulnerable and can understand the criticism. It was a mistake," said Amthor. He ended the sideline and did not exercise stock options.
Nationwide, Amthor's actions gave new impetus to the debate on transparency in secondary activities for MPs. "Questionable lobbying activities such as Philipp Amthor's are causing great harm to our democracy," said the organization to parliamentarians, referring to the young politician's further part-time job for the White & Case law firm. MPs called for the immediate introduction of a mandatory lobby register.
The left-wing federal chairwoman Katja Kipping agreed: "Bundestag, government, judiciary - state power must not be available for sale, otherwise democracy is in question. It must also avoid any appearance of being commercially viable," she warned. Amthor suggested that she give up his mandate. Transparency Germany demanded the appointment of a commissioner for transparency in the representation of political interests.
Green leader Robert Habeck asked the CDU to withdraw Amthor from the Bundestag's investigative committee on the terrorist attack on Berlin's Breitscheidplatz. There, the former head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maassen, is to be interviewed, who "is obviously a buddy of Philipp Amthor," said Habeck. A neutral survey is therefore not possible. Maassen is also said to have maintained contacts with the US company.
Self-disclosure Amthor
