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EPP party and parliamentary group leader Manfred Weber
Photo: Michael Kappeler / dpa
Last Thursday, eight o'clock: The presidency of the European People's Party (EPP) meets for an emergency meeting.
The meeting of the EU heads of state and government is due to begin in a few hours.
But the topic is not the summit.
The topic is the party chairman Manfred Weber himself.
He made mistakes, says Weber.
The management of the Presidium was not in order.
He will change that.
There will be regular meetings in the future, an agenda, and the resolutions will be made accessible.
Then Weber addresses the real reason for the meeting: his salary as party leader.
The CSU politician knows that SPIEGEL is researching the matter.
Weber wants to do damage control.
There have been reports about his compensation that have caused unrest, says Weber.
All he could say was that everything was fine.
It's a pretty flimsy explanation.
He should not appease the displeasure in the party and the Brussels EPP group, of which Weber is also chairman.
The circumstances under which Weber's salary was approved are too dubious for this.
Anger at approaching Meloni
The annoyance with the EPP boss is great anyway.
His rapprochement with Italy's post-fascist brothers, the party of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, has been rejected by many MPs.
The fact that Weber apparently also had a salary of a similar amount approved in addition to the well over 100,000 euros that he receives annually as parliamentary group leader has increased the outrage.
Even a fall of Weber is no longer ruled out in their own ranks.
If the CSU politician cannot dispel every suspicion that everything went smoothly with his salary, then that will burden the European election campaign in the coming year, says a leading member of the parliamentary group.
»We cannot afford to be unclear on this question.«
And there are still ambiguities.
The discussions revolve around who actually decided Weber's salary - and how high it is exactly.
Weber told SPIEGEL that as party and faction leader he earns as much as the "caliber leaders in German parliaments."
That would mean that as party leader he would get around 10,000 euros a month in addition to his salary as parliamentary group leader. Even if this was true: Why don't even the leaders of their own party know the specific amount?
On request, an EPP spokeswoman announced that Weber's salary had been discussed under item 4 of the agenda "Membership fees 2023 and budget" at the party congress in Lisbon last November.
The passage in question reads: "Other costs include the EPP President's remuneration, which has not changed compared to previous EPP Presidents Joseph Daul and Donald Tusk, and includes his travel expenses." The decision was taken unanimously.
Oddities in voting
There are a few odd points about this.
It is unusual for such a decision not to name a specific number, but to refer back to the predecessors.
Several participants in the meeting, with whom SPIEGEL spoke, could not remember that Weber's salary was voted on.
Even stranger: the resolution was not noted in the minutes of the meeting, according to several MPs.
It is also striking that this question was apparently not dealt with in the party's top body, the Presidium.
“It was not discussed at any meeting of the executive committee whether Manfred Weber receives a salary, let alone how much,” says a member of the committee.
The party spokeswoman has so far refused to answer other questions.
Weber was elected EPP boss in May 2022.
The party congress, which supposedly decided his salary, did not take place until six months later.
Does he receive the remuneration retrospectively?
And if so, on what basis?
Did Weber set his salary himself?
It is also unclear who actually determined how high Weber's salary should be.
Was it Weber himself?
And why doesn't the exact sum appear anywhere?
Weber's biggest problem may not be legal, but political.
In the presidium, Weber said on Thursday that he had spoken to CDU leader Friedrich Merz about the matter.
He thinks it's perfectly fine that he's receiving a salary.
According to Weber, Merz pointed out that Angela Merkel, as head of the CDU, initially received money from the party in addition to her parliamentary allowances.
She only waived this when she also took over the better-endowed parliamentary group chairmanship.
However, it is questionable whether Friedrich Merz approves of the matter.
Another EPP MP, who also spoke to the CDU leader, reported that he was angry about the unrest that Weber was bringing to the Union.
The CDU boss did not like Weber's flirt with Meloni.
Like CSU leader Markus Söder, he wants to avoid anything that reduces the Union's electoral chances in the state elections in Bavaria and the European elections.
A debate about controversial payments to a leading Union politician is the last thing Merz needs.
"If Weber loses Merz's support, then he can no longer be held," says a top EPP politician.
"If he doesn't explain himself convincingly soon, that's it for him."
