Emotional debate on Causa Thaler: Now Eching's third mayor is caught in the crossfire of criticism

Created: 01/26/2022, 19:00

The Echinger town hall is currently working intensively on the allegations against Mayor Sebastian Thaler.

(Archive image) © Lehmann

After allegations against Eching's local chief Sebastian Thaler, 3rd mayor Leon Eckert took over the role of chief investigator.

Now he is being criticized himself.

Eching

– The Eching municipal council is only making slow progress in clarifying the matter of Thaler.

Neither the incident at Echinger See, in which Thaler had messed with a car driver, nor the controversial award of the mayor to his brother-in-law in the course of the town hall redesign, did the municipal council really succeed in bringing light into the darkness on Tuesday.

Eching's third mayor, Leon Eckert (Greens), was caught in the crossfire of criticism in what was at times a highly emotional debate.

He had recently taken over the task of processing the allegations against the head of the town hall from the deputy mayor Stefanie Malenke (SPD).

In the meantime, she has become seriously ill and has now declared her resignation in a letter addressed to the committee and to the public (

).

Serious allegations

When the SPD parliamentary group leader Carsten Seiffert read Malenke's touching letter half an hour before midnight, the rifts between the political camps were unmistakable.

Eckert, who had announced that he wanted to put facts on the table at the meeting, was confronted with serious allegations.

The CSU parliamentary group leader Georg Bartl not only doubted his legitimacy as an enlightener, but he also accused him of being "affected himself" and of "being in a certain conflict of interest".

Bartl was alluding to a complaint against Eckert by a private citizen for breach of his duty.

He is said not to have checked Thaler sufficiently.

Bartl complained, among other things, that the correspondence that Eckert had meanwhile carried out was partly "over the desk or the e-mail address of Mr. Thaler".

Eckert admitted the latter in one case.

"I acted independently in all other emails," he assured.

"

Eckert then wrote in a press release on Wednesday evening: “The public prosecutor’s office in Landshut informed me by decree dated January 25, 2022 that the preliminary investigation initiated against me on the basis of a private complaint had been discontinued.

The behavior alleged by the complainant did not constitute a criminal offense from the outset.”

Flaming appeal from Deputy Mayor Stefanie Malenke

The seriously ill Echinger Deputy Mayor Stefanie Malenke (52) has declared her resignation in a letter addressed to the municipal council and the public.

This was combined with an appeal to concentrate on the essentials, to put one's own interests aside and to feel committed to the big picture - namely Eching.

Among other things, Malenke goes into the events in the town hall and in the municipal council.

"Since the public prosecutor's office searched the town hall in July last year, it feels like there is no stone left standing.

We find ourselves […] in a paralyzing endless loop,” says Malenke.

She also sees a positive side in her own retreat.

"Possibly a change in the team of representatives can be exactly the impetus that is necessary

to finally get some movement back into the unbearable rigidity,” said the previous second mayor.

It is important to rebuild trust among those involved.

That's why she explicitly points out: "Wanting to understand the other person, tirelessly asking them to communicate, not automatically judging them, not automatically distancing oneself in order to look good, I would give this loyalty to everyone, regardless of their opinion and no matter which group he or she belongs to.” It also says: “In my opinion, the dilemma we are in could have been avoided.” It shows on many levels “how fatal half-truths, non-communication, lack of reflection can be and the exaggerated focus on one's own needs".

Stefanie Malenke concludes with the words: "Stay healthy - because I can now say that even more emphatically: "This is - in addition to valuable people at our side - the most important thing."

Eckert left no doubts about his legitimacy at Tuesday's meeting.

He referred to the municipal code.

The deputies are therefore clearly regulated.

If the 1st mayor is prevented or personally biased and the 2nd mayor is ill, then the 3rd mayor takes over.

Eckert literally: "That's the ranking!" There was clearly a transfer of competencies.

Georg Bartl countered that he saw things differently, that Malenke had been legitimized by a decision.

The same applies to Eckert.

That should be checked by the legal supervisory authority.

Until then, Eckert's educational work should be suspended.

Carsten Seiffert (SPD parliamentary group leader) thought that was “slowly ridiculous”.

The parliamentary group in particular, which has always called for clarification, is now demanding that it be stopped.

"We should stick with it," judged Seiffert.

Lawyer should help

Regardless of all of this, Leon Eckert had successes to show for themselves.

As for the state of affairs, he said there were indications that the municipality would get money back in the event of Thaler's dispute at Echinger See.

It's about 70,000 euros.

As Eckert had already explained in advance, the municipality had been wrongly advised.

However, there is the option of taking out legal protection insurance.

Finding a lawyer in such a complex procedure is not easy, however, because a distinction must be made between criminal and civil law.

"But I'm in good spirits to find a lawyer under the Legal Remuneration Ordinance," said Eckert.

In terms of legal protection insurance, he added: "As things stand at present, we assume that we can reclaim the entire amount."

order placed

There was support for Eckert from Christoph Gürtner (FW).

Although he could not assess whether there was a file number against Eckert in the whole case, he had received a lot in the past few weeks as far as the procurement of information was concerned.

"Mr. Eckert pushed and informed us," Gürtner clarified.

Michaela Holzer (BfE/FM/ÖDP) also joined her committee colleague.

"I don't see any difference here whether this is passed on by Ms. Malenke or by Mr. Eckert," she explained in order to legitimize it.

She also urged us to hurry and demanded: "We should vote now." In the end, the meeting reached the resolution that "the 3rd mayor is instructed to examine possible claims with the help of a municipal lawyer and to discuss the options for action of an assertion with the municipal council to submit".

(By the way: everything from the region is now also available in our regular Freising newsletter.)

The further procedure with regard to the also controversial issue of "awarding of contracts" then offered less cause for controversy.

Leon Eckert, for example, announced a list of all the money that had flowed to his brother-in-law.

However, he could not name amounts here in the public part.

In addition, it should be checked whether there were comparable offers or whether the contract had possibly been awarded “freely”.

Eckert said he had already prepared a report and sent it to the legal supervisor.

However, it is “very extensive”, so that not everything has been viewed.

He therefore suggested waiting for the opinion of the legal supervisory authority.

An argument that worked.

The decision to do so was unanimous.