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CDU politician Jens Spahn (2021)
Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa
At the beginning of the corona pandemic, face masks were scarce, the then Minister of Health Jens Spahn (CDU) tried to obtain them in a sometimes unusual way.
The mask deals uncovered by SPIEGEL put him and the CDU in trouble - now Spahn himself has sharply condemned the alleged greed for profit of individual MPs from his environment.
At the beginning of the pandemic, there were countless whistleblowers about possible mask suppliers, and 99.9 percent did so out of patriotic understanding, said the CDU politician in the mask investigation committee of the Bavarian state parliament in Munich.
However, a few who are personally known to him may have acted out of selfishness.
"I just think it's shabby that people are getting richer in the crisis," said Spahn.
»Wild West at the mask market«
The aim of the committee is to clarify mask business by the state government in the pandemic, possible participation by members of parliament and sometimes high commission payments to parliamentarians.
The Bavarian Ministry of Health has always emphasized that the ministry has never paid commissions to elected officials.
In addition to Spahn, there are many other politicians on the committee's list of witnesses, including Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder.
Spahn defended the basic approach at the beginning of the corona pandemic, including taking unusual paths when procuring medical protective equipment.
Masks were extremely scarce back then.
»It was wild west on the mask market worldwide.«
He always passed on requests from countries like Bavaria, for example, for special approvals for individual masks, to the responsible authorities.
The procedure was always the same, emphasized the former federal minister: he never interfered in the professional evaluation and assessment of facts.
In addition, Spahn made it clear that he had always encouraged his employees and the subordinate authorities to make purely factual and technical decisions.
mrc/dpa