Europe

Scandals engulf Merkel administration with echoes of Kohl era

Support for chancellor’s ruling alliance slumps amid claims of PPE kickbacks to MPs

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling centre-right alliance has been rocked by graft allegations that may dent support in two regional polls next Sunday. Photograph: Tobias Schwarz/AFP via Getty Images

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Derek Scally in Berlin
Mon Mar 8 2021 - 12:44

With nods to the last days of her mentor Helmut Kohl, the final months of the 16-year Merkel era are trickling away in a daily diet of scandal, fatigue, sloppiness and apathy.

Voters are vexed by vaccination delays, business owners by delayed pandemic aid payments. Now chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling centre-right alliance has been rocked by graft allegations that may dent support in two regional polls next Sunday.

Support for Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and its Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) allies, has slumped to 32 per cent – its lowest level in a year amid claims an MP from each party took kickbacks from protective mask makers.

Investigators raided the home and offices of CSU deputy Bundestag leader Georg Nüsslein to gather evidence for claims he accepted €600,000 to lobby for a mask supplier. Meanwhile CDU MP Nikolas Löbel is accused of taking a €250,000 kickback for similar efforts.

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The allegations against Löbel , a 34-year-old MP from the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, are particularly damaging as his party faces a regional poll there on Sunday.

The CDU is junior partner in the state government and local party leader Susanne Eisenmann said it was “unacceptable for parliamentarians to enrich themselves in this serious crisis”.

Almost as damaging as the graft claims was Löbel ’s intention to stay to term as MP, reportedly for the sake of his office staff – and not to claim a full-term pension and other benefits. After a public outcry, he resigned as an MP on Monday; Nüsslein has left the CSU, and the parliamentary party he once headed in the Bundestag, but is still clinging to his seat until the term ends in August.

Support

The dual scandal has hit the CDU/CSU hard: its early steering of the pandemic saw support soar to nearly 40 per cent in polls, but now serious slips are costing it support. Waits of four months and more for emergency aid promised from economics minister Peter Altmaier, a close Merkel confidant, have dented the party’s support among its core business vote.

Meanwhile even close CDU allies are lost for words at the recent performance of Jens Spahn, federal health minister.

Last October, hours after urging citizens to limit their social contacts and stay home, he attended a private fundraising dinner with 12 guests. After the 300km round trip, he tested positive for Covid-19.

When his promises to deliver large quantities of medical face masks and rapid tests fell flat, Spahn puzzled business leaders last week when he said it was up to the 16 federal states to place their own orders: “To be honest I don’t understand at all why I as federal health minister have to occupy myself with this.”

While Spahn talked, German supermarkets and drug stores went on a shopping spree. On Saturday, queues formed at Aldi supermarkets around the country as customers snapped up rapid-test stock within minutes. Rival Lidl began selling tests online, until the demand caused its website to collapse.

Attack mode

Sensing a political opportunity in this election year, Merkel’s Social Democratic Union (SPD) coalition partners have switched to attack mode.

SPD minister president Manuela Schwesig said her state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern had placed an order of two million rapid tests, for schools and care homes, “because we had an inkling that we couldn’t depend on the federal government”.

SPD secretary general Lars Klingbeil has attacked as “shabby and indecent” the MPs accused of accepting face-mask kickbacks.

The building frustration – and serious claims against other ministers – have prompted leading political analysts to suggest the Merkel administration has entered a “death spiral”.

The mask scandal, in particular, comes just as CDU and CSU party leaders try to agree which of them will run in the election as the would-be successor to Merkel.

“When an avalanche like this starts it’s hard to stop, and developments in Berlin remind me of the last months of Kohl, Merkel is simply exhausted,” said Oscar Gabriel, a former political scientist professor at the University of Stuttgart.

“I think the next months will see quite a bit of movement coming into the opinion polls which, in the end, is good for democracy.”