The green-black coalition in the Southwest has tightened ranks behind Interior Minister Thomas Strobl and rejected an opposition sacking request against the CDU politician. In Wednesday’s roll call vote, 92 out of 145 MPs rejected the SPD and FDP proposal. 52 voted in favor, with one abstention. Two thirds of the MPs should have voted for the expulsion of the motion.
7 of the 100 coalition members did not take part in the vote, CDU man Reinhard Löffler abstained. Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Verdi) threw himself into the breach for his minister and praised him for his work on internal security. The Green Youth has contradicted Kretschmann and sees “trust in the minister severely weakened”.
Rülke calls Strobl a “disgrace to the state police”
SPD and FDP have been indignant in the state parliament that Strobl should remain in office, even if he wants to pay a fine of 15,000 euros for closing the proceedings in the so-called affair of the letters. He had forwarded a letter from a lawyer to a reporter. SPD parliamentary group leader Andreas Stoch said Strobl broke the law.
“There is only one way to avert damage to the country: and that would be to resign immediately from the office of Minister of the Interior”. His FDP colleague Hans-Ulrich Rülke called the story the “low point” of political culture in the history of the state. The minister is not suitable as a model for the state police, of which he is the supreme employer. “He is a disgrace to the Baden-Württemberg police”.
Four coalition MPs are absent from the vote
Seven parliamentarians from the ranks of the Greens and the CDU were absent from the vote, three of whom were exonerated. This means that three members of the Greens and one member of the CDU parliament remained out of the vote. Stuttgart MP Löffler, who abstained, is considered an internal critic of Strobl because the Interior Ministry had banned the prosecutor’s office from investigating the secrets.
Kretschmann: opposition measures with “double standards”
The closure of the prosecutor’s proceedings against a payment of 15,000 euros in the so-called letter deal “is not a sentence,” the Green politician told the state parliament on Wednesday. The proceedings against Strobl were thus concluded. “It means that the presumption of innocence applies.” Kretschmann accused SPD and FDP of using “double standards”.
Kretschmann recalled that the current head of the Chancellery, Wolfgang Schmidt (SPD), had to pay € 5,000 for a Twitter post. As secretary of state at the Federal Ministry of Finance, Schmidt had posted a small portion of the search warrant on Twitter in connection with the searches by the Osnabrück prosecutor’s office.
Kretschmann said the prosecution had been cleared “in a fair and constitutional process”. “Everything is correct”. Addressing the SPD and the FDP, he said he was extraordinary “that they are so outraged today as they were silent then”.
Kretschmann against “execution” and “pillory”
The Prime Minister explained that the principle of proportionality must always apply. He was a staunch opponent of any “moral fury”, “justice” and “prejudice”. “Otherwise we will fall back into the age of the pillory.” The Green praised Strobl’s track record in homeland security. “We have one of the lowest crime rates in Germany.”
Furthermore, the police are stronger in terms of personnel and finances than ever in the history of the country. The CDU politician also represents a “defensive democracy”. Kretschmann said: “That’s why Thomas Strobl remains this country’s interior minister.”
The parliamentary group leaders of the Greens and the CDU, Andreas Schwarz and Manuel Hagel, rejected the request for dismissal. “It’s dubious and unfounded on the matter,” Schwarz said. He called on the SPD and FDP to focus on the factual work in the commission of inquiry and to refrain from “perverse personal discussions and cheap polemics”.
Hagel accused the opposition of “scandal”. The criticisms are becoming “more and more acute, more and more malicious and yes, more and more offensive”. AfD faction leader Bernd Gögel called the enforcement debate a “spectacle event”.
Green youth do not consider the Strobl affair over
The Green Youth, on the other hand, agrees with Strobl’s criticisms. “The matter did not end with the prosecutor’s case being closed,” said Green Youth spokespersons in the southwest, Aya Krkoutli and Elly Reich. “The so-called” letter affair “has seriously undermined confidence in the minister and unfortunately the minister does not seem interested in shedding light on the matter. It has long been clear that Interior Minister Strobl cannot be a model for the police.”
It is up to him “to clarify the various worrying reports of his department and structurally address the problem. This is the least we expect”. The young Greens allude to Strobl’s role in the commission of inquiry in the so-called police affair. In the background are the investigations against the country’s highest police officer, the police inspector.
He is accused of sexual harassment. The U-Committee therefore wants to shed light on police promotion practices. (Dpa)
