Enlarge image
FFP-2 masks (archive image)
Photo: Thomas Frey / dpa
In the face of new details about commissions for the procurement of masks, the opposition is sharply critical of the Union parties.
"The fact that the daughter of the ex-CSU General Secretary Tandler grabbed over 30 million euros in commission and ultimately tax money from mask deals and that young Swiss entrepreneurs now drive Ferrari and Bentley is a kind of legal clan crime," said left-wing finance politician Fabio De Masi.
It is »conceivable that such commissions serve covert party financing.
All of this has to be checked. "
Andrea Tandler is the daughter of the former CSU General Secretary Gerold Tandler. According to a report by WDR, NDR and "Süddeutscher Zeitung" with their PR company Little Penguin GmbH, she received between 5 and 7.5 percent fee and commission for mask deliveries by the Swiss company Emix. Measured against the total amount of deliveries to German ministries, this means a claim of 34 to 51 million euros. A large part of the sum actually flowed.
As SPIEGEL reported in January, Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) also had personal contact with Tandler during the negotiations on mask deliveries. This was initiated by Monika Hohlmeier, CSU politician and daughter of the former Bavarian Prime Minister Franz-Josef Strauss. Tandler's name had
"
said nothing
to him at
first," said Spahn in an interview with SPIEGEL. He had "phoned and exchanged e-mails" with the PR consultant and also talked about prices "in one or two places".
The Federal Ministry of Health alone bought masks from Emix for 712.5 million euros at unit prices of up to 9.90 euros. The two young founders invested their money in luxury cars, among other things. WDR, NDR and »Süddeutscher Zeitung« informed Emix that Tandler had worked as a »project employee« and »coordinated all logistical challenges, such as delivery and flight plans for the planes specially chartered by Emix, with the decreasing ministries in Germany«. According to the report, the company did not want to comment on the amount of the commission, nor did Tandler himself
Left-wing politician De Masi demanded that CDU boss Armin Laschet and CSU boss Markus Söder should put pressure on Tandler so that the commissions are donated in full to the federal budget.
"It must not be that the political environment of the Union is filling its pockets while our small businesses are drowning."
In the course of the mask deal affair, several politicians have since resigned their parliamentary seats and in some cases have left the CDU or CSU.
This group includes the former CDU member Nikolas Löbel, the ex-CSU politician Georg Nüßlein, the former Bavarian Justice Minister Alfred Sauter and the former CDU member of the Bundestag Mark Hauptmann.
dab