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For almost exactly a year, suspicion has been in the room that Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) was not sincere on the failed car toll issue in parliament. In September 2019, he had to justify himself for the first time in the Bundestag by a series of secret meetings that SPIEGEL had made known. However, Scheuer has thus far managed to avoid scandal.
SPIEGEL now has minutes of conversations accurately documenting these meetings between Scheuer and the CEOs of the consortium shareholders CTS Eventim and Kapsch TrafficCom. If the toll operator’s representation is correct, Scheuer would have a big problem: he would be there as a liar. The reaction to the new revelation was correspondingly violent on the part of the opposition, which wants to question the transport minister on Thursday as a witness in the investigation committee on the car toll.
“If the suspicion that Transport Minister Scheuer has also misled and lied to parliament is confirmed next Thursday, then perhaps the most expensive CSU election campaign slogan of all time will also become a solid political scandal. “said the chairman of the Transportation Committee, the green politician. Cem Özdemir to SPIEGEL. His party colleague Oliver Krischer, a member of the tolls investigation committee, asks Scheuer to draw personal conclusions in this case: “What he has achieved in recent years is enough for three resignations in other parties.”
Documents that have now reached the investigative committee contradict Scheuer’s earlier statements on key points. On November 29, 2018, a representative of the operating company made the minister an offer, according to a commemorative protocol, to “wait until the ECJ decided to sign a contract.” However, Scheuer refused because the toll “should still be introduced in 2020”, that is, not in the 2021 election year. Scheuer is also said to have promised the lucrative consortium “optional services” if they paid the asking price for the development of the toll system. “to reduce”.
If this information is correct, Scheuer would not only have lied during question time in the Bundestag, but would also have offered services that might have to be publicized. In another meeting a day after the negative ruling of the European Court of Justice on June 18, 2019, Scheuer could have threatened representatives of the consortium. According to a protocol, it is said that he asked the companies to publicly support his point of view, according to which the conclusion of the contract at the end of 2018 and, therefore, before the ECJ ruling was “necessary”.
A later statement in the transportation committee on the reasons for the termination could be “one way or another.” What was apparently meant was that Scheuer would have waived the termination due to alleged defects. In a question time in parliament, Scheuer had declared that there were “no requests” on his side.
For Krischer, the man from the Greens, the minister’s statements are more than dubious. “Asking someone to lie to save their ministerial head is not a trivial offense,” he said. However, he could envision this in Scheuer: “But that fits into the series of his previous actions: he lied to parliament, cheated other bidders in car toll bids, and thus broke 500 taxpayers damage million euros through your legs apart. “
Özdemir is more than the political issue of a single minister: “If the suspicion against the federal minister is confirmed in the investigation committee on Thursday, it is also about ensuring that the relationship between our democratic institutions is not damaged.”
The FDP is already convinced of the minister’s guilt: “Scheuer lied in the Bundestag and misled the public,” said FDP traffic expert Oliver Luksic, who represents his party on the investigation committee. If he does not draw any conclusions on his own, then the head of the CSU, Söder, must pull the rope.
Luksic also takes into account the Union coalition partner. “The SPD must now show its coalition partner a clear advantage,” said Luksic of SPIEGEL. Scheuer gambled on tax money in the triple-digit million range and fueled disenchantment with politics with his behavior. “That is unworthy of a minister,” said the liberal.
Until now, the SPD had cracked down on criticism of Scheuer, though it asked rather pointed questions about Scheuer’s role on the committee. At SPIEGEL, the chair of the SPD on the investigation committee, Kirsten Lühmann, drew red lines. For them, the deciding factor is whether the operators have offered the minister to sign the contract after the ECJ ruling. “If there was such an offer, then the minister did not tell us the truth in parliament,” Lühmann said. For his party, a red line would be crossed, Lühmann believes that the coalition partner would have to pull the cord.
In the Union there was initially silence on Friday on the events surrounding the Minister of Transport. CSU chief Markus Söder said in the summer: “First, the commission of inquiry has to clarify whether the allegations are correct.” In the end, you have to evaluate it.
Even the transport minister himself did not respond to the new accusations on Friday. His ministry had told SPIEGEL in a statement that the minister would “fully explain” the matter when he was questioned as a witness before the parliamentary commission of inquiry on October 1.
