At the beginning of 2020, corona masks were traded like gold. The prices climbed to immeasurable heights, some made a lot of money from them. The prime minister defends himself and his state government.
Munich (dpa / lby) – Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder has rejected any responsibility for abuses in the purchase of corona protective masks by the state government during the pandemic. “There was no influence, no instructions to do anything individually,” said the CSU leader on Friday during his testimony in the mask investigation committee of the Bavarian state parliament. At the time, the state government used every opportunity to procure masks, but always according to the law, stressed Söder.
The central responsibility for the purchase of masks lay with the Ministry of Health and the State Office for Health and Food Safety (LGL), said Söder. He himself was responsible for setting the “big line” in fighting the pandemic. “As Prime Minister, you don’t have to worry about every detail. You don’t count every mask either,” he said.
Söder is the last witness invited to the investigative committee, which started work about a year ago. The focus is on several dubious mask deals, some of which paid immense prices for masks and some of which also included lavish commissions for members of the CSU at the time. In addition, many masks later turned out to be defective and had to be replaced.
Söder recalled the lack of protective equipment in the first months of the pandemic: “It was an absolute emergency, deliveries from China were stopped.” The supply situation for protective equipment was “absolutely dramatic”. “There was nothing, nada, and nothing more came.” At that time, people would have considered holding coffee filters or vacuum cleaner bags in front of their mouths to protect themselves. “I only know that it was always too little. It was always too little,” said Söder in retrospect.
At that time, the state government got involved in the procurement of masks because the global market had failed. “The search was intensive, but not haphazard,” emphasized Söder. After “initial confusion” the search was structured, for example the ministry was increased in terms of staff. The benchmark for action was success, “so we get masks”. All possibilities were used – “but always according to law and order”. However, there was no interference from the state government. “Nobody seriously believes that a minister or the state chancellery said, this mask or not.”
The aim of the committee was and is in particular to clarify the state government’s mask business in the corona pandemic, possible involvement of politicians and sometimes high commission payments to MPs – with the commissions coming from the companies involved.
At the center of the mask affair are the long-standing CSU MPs Alfred Sauter and Georg Nüßlein, who received lavish commissions at the beginning of the corona pandemic for arranging mask shops. From a legal point of view, the Federal Court of Justice did not see the offense of bribery as fulfilled – Sauter and Nüßlein had always emphasized that they acted as lawyers. Nevertheless, CSU politicians have also described their actions as morally reprehensible.
Söder said, without naming anyone, that personal misconduct had been identified in one case – not legally, but morally. But there was no system behind it. He only found out about the commission payments later from the press. He did not talk to Sauter about the mask business at the time.
Andrea Tandler, the daughter of former CSU General Secretary Gerold Tandler, is said to have earned the most money – who refused to testify in the committee. Söder said that he was not involved in this process and that he does not know Andrea Tandler personally.
Among other things, Söder rejected having campaigned excessively for a mask offer from a company that the then Federal Minister of Transport Andreas Scheuer (CSU) mediated to the state government. “You have to take it, Scheuer has to guarantee that!” According to an internal email from the Ministry of Health, Söder is said to have written in an SMS at the time – the ministry initially did not want to recommend the purchase of the masks “technically”. He texts a lot. “But I can’t remember the SMS,” said Söder. But he was “relieved for a few hours” when the masks – around eight million pieces – arrived at the airport. It was only later that it turned out that a large proportion of the masks delivered from China were defective and had to be replaced.
Basically, Söder emphasized that there were no instructions from the State Chancellery on this or other procurement processes – the departmental responsibility applies. He himself could not interfere anywhere that he had no knowledge. When asked what officials felt under pressure, Söder said that everyone felt under pressure at the time, everyone acted under pressure.
On the other hand, Söder rejected having campaigned specifically for a mask offer from his wife Karin Baumüller-Söder’s company. In a morning conversation, his wife informed him about a possible offer of help. He then only asked his office to transmit his wife’s number to the responsible body in the Ministry of Health. “And everything else, I didn’t have anything to do with that anymore.” In fact, the deal didn’t materialize in the end.
The opposition criticizes, among other things, that companies with contacts in the state government were apparently given preferential treatment at the time.
