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Defense Minister Kramp-Karrenbauer: "Letting office rest is not enough"
Photo: Michael Kappeler / dpa
Leading Union politicians are urging MPs Nikolas Löbel (CDU) and Georg Nüßlein (CSU) to resign immediately because they had personally enriched themselves in the procurement of masks during the corona crisis.
There is absolutely nothing to gloss over.
"And to let offices rest is not enough," tweeted Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU).
"Löbel and Nüßlein must resign completely and resign their mandates in the Bundestag immediately."
The two MPs had declared that they would not stand for a new candidacy.
Löbel announced his immediate withdrawal from the Union faction, but wants to keep the Bundestag mandate until the end of August.
He would continue to make a lot of money from it in the coming months.
Health Minister Jens Spahn also criticized Löbel.
"Collecting a commission, that is, wanting to earn money with mediation in emergency situations, is not possible," Spahn told the "Rheinpfalz".
At the same time, he emphasizes: "The fact that MPs helped with contacts in the emergency situation at the time was and remains legitimate."
Union parliamentary group leader Ralph Brinkhaus and CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt had distanced themselves on Friday, as did CDU general secretary Paul Ziemiak, and expressed sharp criticism, but did not announce the expulsion of Löbel and Nüßlein from the parliamentary group.
Opposition increases pressure on the Union
FDP, Left, Greens, AfD and SPD see the mask affair as evidence of a more far-reaching corruption problem in the ranks of the Union.
"The Löbel and Nüßlein cases suggest that the Union is a structural problem," said
FDP
vice-president Wolfgang Kubicki.
»For 16 years the Union had the feeling to be the ruling party.
Obviously some of them have lost their sense of the limits of propriety, ”said Kubicki.
Health Minister Jens Spahn should also make his connections to the CSU Amigo network around Andrea Tandler transparent, it said from the ranks of the FDP.
The Union obviously has a massive corruption problem, said
left
parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch of the »world«.
The Union had prevented transparency obligations for MPs for years.
In order to avert further damage to politics, it needs complete clarification, the lobbying activities of all Union MPs.
The leadership of the Union is now required, so Bartsch.
"Ralph Brinkhaus should ensure clarity in his group, otherwise a committee of inquiry has to take over."
The
Greens,
too, are
now calling for stricter rules for members of parliament for secondary earnings.
It is no longer just about compliance with laws and rules, but also about decency and dignity and, last but not least, about trust in politics, said Britta Haßelmann, parliamentary manager of the Green Group, the "world".
The Union must "clean up its own shop and clear up this black felt."
The
AfD
demanded a statement from the Chancellor that Merkel could no longer remain silent on these events, said parliamentary group leader Alice Weidel.
For the credibility of the government's corona policy, "the scandals about personal advantages in mask deals by politicians from governing parties are an oath of disclosure."
The
SPD also
criticizes its coalition partner.
"After Strenz, Amthor, Nüßlein, Fischer and now Löbel, one can no longer speak of individual cases," said the deputy parliamentary group leader Dirk Wiese.
Now Philipp Amthor will also be promoted to the top candidate of the CDU in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
SPD labor minister Hubertus Heil meanwhile called on party leaders Markus Söder and Armin Laschet to take a stand.
Both have not yet commented on the affairs.
250,000 commission is "in line with the market"
SPIEGEL reported on the Löbel enrichment affair on Friday.
He had confirmed that he had collected commissions of 250,000 euros for mask orders.
Accordingly, the 34-year-old offered companies from the health sector to provide them with protective masks from a company in Baden-Württemberg.
more on the subject
Icon: Spiegel PlusAudiostory: MP describes his 250,000 euro mask commission as "in line with the market"
Mask affair: the Löbel case troubles the CDU by Veit Medick
Icon: Spiegel Plus protective mask scandal: Glitzy entrepreneur is said to be involved in CSU corruption affairBy Sven Becker, Sven Röbel, Gerald Traufetter and Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt
Affair about CSU politician Nüßlein: In the mask trap
Georg Nüßlein: mask affair - CSU politician is said to have been bribed by a Hessian supplier
Löbel initially described the commissions as "in line with the market".
He later admitted that he should have acted more sensitively as a member of the Bundestag - and declared that he would withdraw from the Bundestag's Foreign Affairs Committee, that he would leave the Union faction immediately and that he would not resign from his Bundestag mandate until August 31, shortly before the Bundestag election .
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Nikolas Löbel: Member of Parliament until the summer?
Photo: Christian Spicker / imago images / Christian Spicker
His chances of being re-elected in his federal constituencies were bad anyway.
Löbel had already hit the headlines several times in the past - among other things because of overpriced rents in an apartment building he had bought.
Nüßlein received a commission of 660,000 euros
Recently, the scandals had accumulated around Conservative MPs.
There are allegations of corruption and tax evasion against the CSU politician Georg Nüßlein.
Nüßlein is said to have campaigned for a supplier of corona protective masks at the Federal Ministry of Health and the Bavarian Ministry of Health in spring 2020.
For this, a commission of 660,000 euros is said to have gone to a company in which Nüßlein is said to be involved.
After the Munich Public Prosecutor's Office had searched the Nüßlein's office and a dozen other locations, Nüßlein suspended his position as vice-parliamentary group.
He denies the allegations.
The mask affair could become a real danger for the Union - especially with a view to the two upcoming state elections in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate.
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slü / dpa
