The Munich prosecutor's office announced on Thursday February 25 the opening of an investigation against a conservative deputy who is a member of Angela Merkel's political family and suspected of corruption in connection with an order for protective masks during the first wave of the pandemic.
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The lower house of parliament on Thursday suspended the parliamentary immunity of the elected, Georg Nüsslein, member of the Bavarian conservative party CSU, allied to the Christian Democrat movement of the German chancellor.
Its leader Markus Söder is the favorite in the polls to replace Angela Merkel in the chancellery in September.
The public prosecutor's office immediately carried out searches in several places in Germany and Liechtenstein and seized documents which must now be evaluated.
The investigation relates to "
an initial suspicion of fraud and corruption on the part of state officials,
" said a spokesperson for the prosecution, pointing out that another person, whose identity has not been revealed , was also targeted by this procedure in connection "
with the purchase of protective masks against the coronavirus
", without further details.
Nüsslein is one of the vice-chairmen of the Conservative parliamentary group, which brings together the CSU and the CDU under Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Questioned by AFP, the deputy's services did not react at this stage.
According to several media, he would have promoted a supplier of protective masks, data scarce last spring, with the ministries of health of the federal state and Bavaria last spring, and the Ministry of the Interior headed by Horst Seehofer, also CSU.
The contract has been made.
Subsequently, "
Nüsslein would have invoiced for its intermediary activity an invoice of 660,000 euros
" from this textile firm located in Hesse, in the west of the country, assures Der Spiegel.
“
The money has apparently been paid,
” says the magazine.
According to the newspaper Bild, the sum would have landed with a company of which he is director but would not have been the subject of a declaration to the taxes on turnover as it should have been.
Several parliamentarians demanded that all light be shed on this affair.
"
If there is the slightest suspicion that a deputy has enriched himself personally with the coronavirus crisis, then this is a serious and serious reproach that must be fully clarified
", thus ruled on his Twitter account a leader of the Social Democratic Party, Katja Mast, a movement associated with the conservatives in the coalition government that runs the country.
