The masks affair is far from over in the Union. Especially not in the CSU, whose boss, Markus Söder, actually had completely different plans than getting his hands dirty in the party swamp. High-flying plans: If you want to become chancellor, you have to be able to crisis, was Söder’s verdict.
Who he meant by that was clear: himself. What he meant, too: the Corona crisis. But now he’s also dealing with a homemade one, and that’s when it becomes even more clear whether the great chairman can cope with a crisis.
Söder is currently swearing everyone in the CSU. Into the “Red Bull mode”, he demands, that should give you wings. The party should pull itself together and face the crises. With Corona, preferably with zero Covid at the end. Söder wants to face the other crisis with new transparency and zero tolerance. The culprits from the party and parliamentary group are pushed out, and the hope of the Christian Social at the top around Söder is that that will be enough.
If it were that easy. Because in at least one case Söder has to do with someone who, as a politician, has a hand in hand: Alfred Sauter. 41 years for the CSU in parliaments, first in the Bundestag, then, since 1980, in the state parliament. Funded by CSU icon Franz Josef Strauss, confidante of Edmund Stoiber, vacation companion of Horst Seehofer, broker between Seehofer and Markus Söder, then his advisor. Sauter’s reputation is legendary, and he has always made a lot of money with that reputation. As a lawyer, which he still is.
Sauter and his friends: In any case, he knew how to build closeness to those in power in the CSU, how to use this power and how to free himself from even the slightest difficult situation.
And even more, he taught those who had put him in this position to fear. Stoiber, for example, who sacrificed him as a minister at a critical moment – a housing affair – which he never forgot. The office was that of the Minister of Justice, by the way, in this case it sounds like an irony of history.
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Sauter is said to have earned 1.2 million euros in masks deals through a front company. That is the charge. Sauter’s defense: He did not act as a politician, but rather as a lawyer “recognizable to all”. And he also donated a lot of money from the business. A community foundation in Günzburg has received 470,000 euros.
It will be difficult or difficult to prove to Sauter
The public prosecutor’s investigators are faced with a difficult task. Corruption, bribery, bribery – all of this will be difficult or difficult to prove for Sauter. After all, he hasn’t cut any tax payments either. Accordingly, Sauter is certain that he will soon be able to return to the CSU parliamentary group.
What happens then? Söder has to fight in any case. The new CSU, the party with a new spirit, of which the party leader speaks, is far from being established. In fact, it may take a long time until then. Sauter is only one of many possible cases. By the time everyone is cleared up and this crisis is under control, the federal elections may already be over.
The Union is not coming to rest
But the corona crisis isn’t yet. And since Söder, as a Christian social politician, has in the meantime agreed in a small group with the outgoing Chancellor to a lockdown over the Easter holidays, for which his predecessor Horst Seehofer could not show any understanding. What he said in public.
[Kampf gegen das Coronavirus: Wie Bund und Berlin die Probleme bei Impfungen und Tests lösen wollen, lesen Sie hier (T+).]
Now the “Easter rest” is no longer coming – but neither is the Union. Seehofer’s words resonate in the Union. Armin Laschet, Söder’s CDU competitor for the candidacy for chancellor, must have enjoyed hearing them.
By the way: Peter Gauweiler, formerly deputy CSU chairman and member of the Bundestag, has now got into the talk about eleven million euros in fees for “consulting services”, is associated with Alfred Sauter as a lawyer. They have a joint law firm on the fine Lenbachplatz in Munich.
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