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Legal concerns about the role of the Economic Council in the CDU

2022-01-12T14:28:16.951Z


The regular participation of the Economic Council in the board meetings of the CDU violates the law on political parties, according to a legal opinion. The lobby control association demands legal action.


Enlarge image

Astrid Hamker, President of the Economic Council

Photo: Jens Schicke / imago images

The regular participation of the CDU Economic Council in the board meetings of the CDU is, according to lawyers, incompatible with the political parties law and the CDU statutes.

The lobby control association, which commissioned the report published on Wednesday by the Hamburg law firm Günther, is therefore calling for consequences: "The economic council has to get out of the CDU party executive," said Christina Deckwirth.

She spoke of a "questionable interweaving of party work and lobbying interests."

The CDU Economic Council, founded in 1963, claims to be an entrepreneurial professional association with more than 12,000 members.

It is not an official division of the CDU, but its President Astrid Hamker takes part in the meetings of the party executive as a "permanent guest".

The CDU should "clearly distinguish between lobbying and party concerns."

The report now presented sees this as a violation of the party law and the CDU statute, because Hamker was not elected by any party congress and there is no statutory basis for her regular guest status.

Deckwirth added that, unlike the CDU, comparable organizations such as the SPD Economic Forum or the Economic Dialogue of the Greens were not represented in the respective party executive.

She admitted that lobby control itself could not go to court.

However, she encouraged the members of the CDU to take legal action.

Otherwise the democratic legitimacy and credibility of the party are at risk.

"The involvement of numerous CDU politicians in the mask deals last spring showed that the party has a lobbying problem in its own ranks," Deckwirth continued.

The CDU then drew conclusions from this and said it had to do this now by "cutting old entanglements and clearly separating lobby and party concerns."

Designated CDU boss Merz was Vice President of the Economic Council

The lawyers Roda Verheyen and André Horenburg of the Hamburg law firm Günther argued: Contrary to what the name »CDU Economic Council« suggests, the body is not a party division.

Nonetheless, its members in the party executive board had permanent guest rights, although they did not have the right to vote, but with the right to speak.

There is therefore no discernible difference to other advisory members of the board who represent party organizations there.

The Basic Law stipulates: "The internal order of parties must conform to democratic principles." According to the report, it is not permissible for a party executive to accept additional members by virtue of its own resolution and without a constitutional basis, regardless of whether they only participate in an advisory capacity.

According to lawyers, invitations must not serve the interests of the guests

It is only possible to invite knowledgeable guests in specific cases to specific questions. Here too, however, the Board of Management's interest in information must be in the foreground. The invitation "must not serve the interests of the guests in influencing the decisions of the board of directors or to find out about the status of opinions and discussions in the CDU federal board". Otherwise there is an »inadmissible influence« on the opinion of the board of directors.

The matter is also explosive because the designated CDU chairman Friedrich Merz himself was active in a leading position in the CDU economic council.

From mid-2019 to November 2021, he was one of the board's vice presidents.

This means that Merz now has "a special responsibility to create a clear distinction between lobbying interests and the party," emphasized Lobbycontrol.

According to the media report, the CDU cannot yet comment on the current report

The CDU Economic Council sees itself as an "entrepreneurial professional association".

It wants to offer its members "a platform for helping to shape economic and social policy," as it says on its homepage.

According to the report of the "Süddeutsche Zeitung", a spokesman for the CDU announced in May 2020 that the Economic Council had "never been part of the CDU structures" and that it was "not part of the CDU".

The Economic Council has been "closely linked to the CDU" since it was founded in 1963.

And there is "no reason to fundamentally question this relationship".

According to the newspaper on Wednesday, the party was unable to comment on the legal opinion that has now been submitted, as its lobby control did not want to send the opinion in advance.

anr / dpa / AFP

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-01-12

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