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On Friday at 3:52 pm, Thomas Kreuzer ignites the next level of climbing. “Anyone who becomes rich in a pandemic situation,” announced the leader of the CSU parliamentary group in a press release, “cannot remain a member of our parliamentary group.” Next week, the parliamentary group will discuss the expulsion of MP Alfred Sauter from the group. However, Kreuzer still sets a final deadline for him. Until precisely 12 noon on Sunday, Sauter had the opportunity to “plausibly and understandably dispel the allegations against him,” the statement said.
The CSU is increasing pressure on Sauter, who is under investigation for alleged bribery. So far, Sauter hasn’t moved. It was heard in party circles on Friday that he was determined to keep his term. He wants to decide over the weekend whether to resign from his party’s office. Sauter has been a member of the presidium and the board of the CSU, the highest bodies of the party, since 2014. In addition, he has been vice president of the Swabian District Association since 2003. Another office is noted on the Sauter home page, which now seems unintentionally ironic: Chairman of the CSU Finance Commission.
Sauter is still stubborn. The party is familiar with this stubbornness. In 1999, in the matter of the millionaire losses by the semi-state housing association LWS, then Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber fired then Minister of Justice Sauter. But he didn’t want to accept that. “Sheep shit,” he said about the reasons for his release. Only when the state parliament was supposed to confirm the resignation in a plenary session did Sauter step down. Now let the CSU fret again and thus upset the party leadership.
“Anyone who gets rich, who does business with the crisis,” said CSU Secretary General Markus Blume, “flies.” That was Wednesday. Meanwhile, Sauter has indirectly admitted that he received not only attorney’s fees in connection with the mask business with the state, but also a commission. In total, it is around 1.2 million euros. But instead of initiating a process of exclusion from the party, the CSU leadership around party leader Markus Söder is apparently waiting to see if Sauter leaves the CSU on his own initiative, leaving him with the demand that Sauter resign. your position in the party. After all, the expulsion of the parliamentary group could now be swift.
Meanwhile, the opposition in the state parliament is savoring the CSU crisis. With the Greens, says the leader of the parliamentary group Katharina Schulze, there are rules, “and if someone breaks the rules, there is the next step.” CSU, on the other hand, only uses “big words.” The leader of the SPD parliamentary group, Horst Arnold, even sees signs of “organized crime” in the mask affair surrounding Sauter and Bundestag member Georg Nüßlein, who has since left the CSU. Both reject accusations of corruption. Arnold also emphasizes the presumption of innocence, but says, “CSU has a long-standing, structural Friend problem that it just can’t control.” Like Schulze, he demands a quick clarification of the mask business with the Bavarian Ministry of Health, in which Sauter and Nüßlein participated.
In the deal, the ministry paid more than 14 million euros for around 3.5 million masks. Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) has promised to clarify things “without reservation”. But about the circumstances, how business was going, if and who was in contact with Sauter and Nüßlein at the ministry, you go to Holetschek’s house and refer to the investigation. “Anyone who talks about clearing the table, but at the same time covering the table without end, is not credible,” says Katharina Schulze.
At least in his homeland of Swabia, Alfred Sauter has now drawn the first political conclusions. He rests his post as district chief of Günzburg CSU. His vice president Georg Schwarz confirmed this on Friday morning when asked. “He asked us to keep doing business until everything was resolved,” says Schwarz, who is now taking over Sauter’s duties for the time being. Sauter justified his decision by saying that he wanted to “hold harmless the district association of Günzburger CSU”.
It is also determined against MP Straub, due to the bankruptcy of a car dealer
In the next week, the party executive will meet to discuss the basic consequences of today. A written statement from CSU Member of State Parliament Karl Straub, who admits that he is also being investigated for tax evasion and delay in bankruptcy in connection with the bankruptcy of his car dealership in Pfaffenhofen, sparked additional riots Friday night . Such accusations have been known for two years. Due to a recent media report, Straub was apparently forced to comment on the allegations. “I reject the accusations made against me,” writes Straub. It could “exclude any conflict of interest”.
Already on Sunday, the CSU district executive in Swabia advises on regulatory measures against Sauter. Will he resign his positions in the party? If not, the county board will probably force it. You will speak about the case “and draw conclusions if necessary,” says district chief Markus Ferber when asked. “Of course, we not only have to make a legal assessment, but also a political and ethical one.”
Sauter may only remain in the term of state parliament, which, according to CSU circles, he absolutely wants to keep. The CSU’s demand that Sauter let the term rest should be in vain anyway. Such a case is not provided for in the Bavarian Constitution. There it says in article 19: “Membership in the state parliament during the electoral period is lost by resignation, declaration of nullity of the election, subsequent change of the electoral results and loss of the ability to vote.”
