The opposition in the Schwerin state parliament is in turmoil after the late announcement of the destruction of tax files from the MV Climate Foundation. The accusation that the government had political influence on the tax office is still in the room.
Schwerin (dpa/mv) – The latest incidents involving the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Climate Foundation are causing special meetings of the state parliament’s legal and finance committees in the coming week. The opposition groups CDU, Greens and FDP have requested the extraordinary meetings, as the group leaders Franz-Robert Liskow (CDU), Harald Terpe (Greens) and René Domke (FDP) announced on Friday. The only item on the agenda is: “Report and statement by the Minister of Finance on the destroyed tax return of the MV Climate Foundation and the allegation that the state government may have exerted political influence”. The affair is called “Kamin-Gate” for short.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, an employee of the Ribnitz-Damgarten tax office burned the foundation’s tax files in a knee-jerk reaction in spring 2022 after realizing that she had been processing them for some time. A feverish search had been made for the documents. The woman revealed herself to her manager, who reported the incident. The proceedings against her were discontinued in autumn 2022 against a payment of money. The matter only became public knowledge on Wednesday after a media report.
Terpe explained that Finance Minister Heiko Geue (SPD) and Justice Minister Jaqueline Bernhardt (left) continue to leave more questions unanswered than they give answers. “In the special meetings of the specialist committees, we expect the people responsible to provide plausible answers about the story of the burned tax return from the so-called climate foundation.”
Domke expressed the suspicion that the case could only be the tip of the iceberg. He called for a “turning point” in MV. “Away from red-red Russia entanglements and cover-ups towards absolute transparency.” Liskow described the government’s behavior in dealing with events surrounding the foundation as “indecent”. He called it a “thin explanation” that the process of the burned tax return should be subject to tax secrecy and that the public was therefore not informed. Rather, the state government tried to keep quiet about the process and even accepted not telling the truth to Parliament, he said.
Finance Minister Geue had previously stated that he had informed the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry in December 2022 about the destruction of tax returns from the Climate Foundation by an employee of the Ribnitz-Damgarten tax office. However, the head of the tax office had reported the process seven months earlier.
The Ministry of Finance reaffirmed on Friday that it had been prevented from publicly commenting on the destruction of the tax returns until the allegations made in the media about tax secrecy and the employee’s personal rights became known. The notification of December 22, 2022 to the committee of inquiry was possible because the committee was obliged to maintain confidentiality. The Ministry of Justice pointed out that it is not obliged to inform the public about investigations by the public prosecutor’s office.
The climate foundation was set up primarily in order to be able to complete the Nord Stream 2 pipeline without the threat of sanctions from the USA. The foundation was endowed with 20 million euros by the Gazprom subsidiary Nord Stream 2. She is now to pay 9.8 million euros in gift tax. On the other hand, the foundation appealed to the tax court, which has not yet decided.
