Thomas Strobl has survived many crises. Most recently, he was under pressure for piercing a letter from a lawyer. But the minister can keep his head above water. Nobody in the coalition is likely to benefit from his fall at the moment.
Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) – At 10.50 a.m. the time has come. Thomas Strobl comes out of the meeting room in the basement of the state parliament and strides energetically to the meeting room. He faces an hour-long interrogation by the committee of inquiry into the police affair on Friday. Nagging questions, many accusations, personal accusations. Nevertheless, Strobl smiles, loudly wishes everyone “Good morning” and shakes the usher’s hand. Then he disappears into the hall. He gives no indication that his night must have been rather short and uncomfortable. His political career was at stake – again, it has to be said.
But Strobl is just a stand-up man. Over the course of his long career, he repeatedly managed to survive political crises. This time it’s about a letter from a lawyer. The case is as simple as it is complex – and is actually an affair within an affair: the country’s highest-ranking police officer, the police inspector, has been suspended for allegations of sexual harassment. The inspector’s lawyer sends Strobl a letter, which the minister passes on to a journalist. That’s why the public prosecutor’s office is investigating not only against the journalist, but also against Strobl – because he is said to have instigated the reporter to publish.
Strobl has been under pressure for months, and the opposition even set up a committee of inquiry. On Thursday, Strobl announced that he had been offered a settlement of the proceedings against payment of a fine. He wants to pay 15,000 euros to end the matter. For a long time it was puzzled whether an interior minister responsible for law and order would be able to stay in office with such a result. Strobl is therefore legally innocent and has no criminal record, but it is not an acquittal either. Strobl is campaigning for support in the CDU parliamentary group and in the presidium of his party – with success. The prime minister is also supporting his old companion. For him, the matter is now settled, reports Winfried Kretschmann (Greens).
Only the opposition still has many questions. She accuses Strobl of having bought his freedom. The MPs are trying to put Strobl under pressure again at the public meeting of the committee of inquiry on Friday. When was the public prosecutor’s offer? Why did Strobl refuse to testify about a deal at the September committee meeting? Has he never considered resigning to avert damage to the country? Why does he even accept the 15,000 euro deal and not let it come to a trial if he is convinced that he is right?
Especially when it comes to questions about the timing and when who knew what, Strobl remains vague. When exactly the offer of employment was made, he no longer knows exactly, he says. The talks between his defense attorneys and the public prosecutor’s office have only now reached the required “maturity”. However, he was sure that he would have won a court case, but wanted to avoid a lengthy process. “I firmly believe that I have committed no crime, that I am innocent.” But he is not only a private person, but also Minister of the Interior. From his point of view, a procedure would have been a burden for the state government, the coalition, and for him personally, he says.
Strobl’s resignation would have been a burden for the green-black coalition. Maybe that’s also a reason why Strobl was able to pull his head out of the noose. Kretschmann has no interest in Strobl’s fall because he wants peace and stability in his government and he trusts Strobl. And for CDU faction leader Manuel Hagel, who is said to have ambitions for the top candidate for the 2026 state elections, Strobl’s resignation and the associated vacancies in power come too early.
The opposition, meanwhile, continues to boil — or maybe because the so-called letter affair, which was difficult to convey to the public from the start, is just disappearing into thin air. FDP MP Julia Goll found Strobl to be a mixture of “Teflon and Pattex”. It has become much less likely that the minister will stumble across the committee of inquiry after his offensive.
