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Special rules apply to parliamentary committees of inquiry. One of them is that there should be no prior agreements between the witnesses summoned to the hearing and the members of the committee. Everything else violates the independence of the witness and renders her testimony useless. At worst, the entire questioning was in vain.
Transportation Sen. Regine Günther (Greens), of all people, broke this iron rule on Friday at the House of Representatives BER inquiry committee. At the beginning of her questioning, which was eagerly awaited by opposition representatives, CDU deputy Christian Gräff Günther asked a kind of leading question.
Gräff wanted to know if he had consulted with anyone before the meeting. To everyone’s surprise, Günther later stated that he had exchanged ideas with Harald Moritz, the transport policy spokesman for the Green parliamentary group and chairman of the inquiry commission.
Although it was only about formal issues such as processes and regulations, but still: The exchange with the friend of the party had taken place, Moritz also admitted it after the senator’s statement.
The SPD also criticizes the senator of Green Transport Günther
What followed was the interruption of the session and a little later, in the non-public part, its termination. The parliamentary group FDP reportedly requested this step. Everyone else agreed, except for Moritz. He abstained on behalf of his group and had already announced in advance that he would leave the meeting.
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From the ranks of the opposition, but also the SPD, Günther was harshly criticized for his actions. There was talk of a “no-go” and that Günther was obviously very unfamiliar with the rules of parliamentarism.
It is not clear what consequences the incident will have for Günther, but also for Moritz. In a first statement, Gräff said that both had violated the rules of the investigation commission “in a blatant way”. He announced that the case would have to be dealt with by the Speaker of Parliament, Ralf Wieland (SPD). From the SPD parliamentary group, in turn, it was said that he would not intervene in a new interrogation of Günther if the opposition requested it.
Greens spokesman: accusation is “absurd and wrong”
The Greens, in turn, responded to the incident through Laura Hofmann, spokeswoman for the parliamentary group in the House of Representatives. The conversation between Harald Moritz and Regine Günther was “only about the location of the inquiry commission, that is, the meeting room, the composition of the commission and the conduct of the meeting,” she explained. “The accusation of preliminary arrangements is as absurd as it is wrong on the matter,” he said.
Hofmann “politely apologized” on behalf of the group for any “delay in the investigation committee’s proceedings” that had already occurred when the meeting was interrupted.
