Consequences from Corona: Opposition: After Sudhof appearance, more open questions

After a survey by the special investigator Margaretha Sudhof, the opposition sees further need for controversial mask purchases in the Corona period. “There are more open questions than answered questions,” said Green MP Paula Piechotta after a two-hour exchange of the Bundestag budget committee with Sudhof. The left described allegations against ex-health minister Jens Spahn (CDU) as “rather hardened”. The committee wants to deal with the topic again at the end of July.

A report by Sudhof had found that Spahn had entered a mass procurement against the council of his specialist departments at the beginning of the 2020 pandemic. The ministry also used a procedure with fixed high prices without further negotiations. Suppliers complained about then not removed. The federal government threatens to do with billion dollar risks. The previous minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) then commissioned Sudhoff with an examination in 2024.

Session classified as confidential

When she came to the Bundestag in the morning, however, it was again about questions of transparency. To answer the request of the MPs, they will be happy to answer, the lawyer said in front of the meeting room. “Unfortunately, I don’t have an unlimited statement permit, not even for the committee,” she added. She had to ask for your understanding that she could not comment on the public at the moment.

The meeting of the committee was then classified as confidential. And with regard to Sudhof’s preliminary dwelling, the ministry said that at the confidential session she had unlimited statement approval for her report in an awkward version. The ministry had initially only given the report to the committee with partially illegible passages. After becoming known to an unwooded version, criticism of Spahn increased.

“Statement against statement – and one lies”

After the survey, Greens-Hausläiffer Piechotta spoke of an important session to compensate for statements Spahn and the current minister Nina Warken (CDU) with Sudhof’s findings. “I have the feeling that there is a statement against statement – and one lies.” However, one will only get on at this point in an investigation committee with interrogations under oath.

Left boss Ines Schwerdtner also called on the coalition factions to carry the inserting of a U-committee. Greens and the left have too few votes, but do not want to deal with the AfD. The government should also be very interested in education in order to avoid such scandals in the future, said Schwerdtner. The allegations against Spahn and the Ministry have now been “more confirmed, because relieved”.

“No new food for conspiracy theories”

The Union budget politician Christian Haase, on the other hand, said after the meeting that “conspiracy theories of left and the Greens” had not received any new food. In conversation with Sudhof, it was about her mission to improve the process tactics of the ministry in procedures to improve mask purchases. It is not about “any allegations against former ministers”. When asked whether he had found allegations of a party policy motivation Sudhof, Haase said: “No, there is no reason for that.”

Further surveys at the end of July

This Thursday, the investigator will also go to the health committee. The budget committee wants to deal with the mask procurement again at the end of July during the general summer break of Parliament, as it was said after the meeting. The topic should then also be the award of funding to the now insolvent battery manufacturer Northvolt for a planned work in Schleswig-Holstein-because the Union wants to mix this and the mask debate, as Piechotta stated. In addition to Sudhof, ex-Economic Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) is expected to be invited.

Union faction leader Spahn once again assured that he did not get any money for mask business. When asked by the “Stern”, he replied that these assumptions of individual greener were slandered. “So far I only know such a meager from the AfD.” Spahn had justified the procedure in the crisis situation at the time.