For months, the mask committee has been trying to shed light on the background to controversial business in the corona pandemic. Not much has come out so far. Now a prominent witness is expected.
Munich (dpa / lby) - With Jens Spahn, a former federal minister will testify on Friday for the first time as a witness in the investigative committee of the Bavarian state parliament on the corona mask affair. The former Federal Minister of Health should answer the committee's questions about the ties between the federal government and the Free State in mask shops, said the Vice-Chairman of the committee, Florian Siekmann (Greens), in Munich.
In Berlin, Spahn's successor in office, Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD), must finally "clarify the burning of tax money in the mask shops, otherwise the federal government needs its own committee of inquiry". It goes beyond common sense that the federal government was showered with corona masks at a price of 4.50 euros each and still ordered a total of 100 million masks from another company for 5.40 euros, said Siekmann.
The aim of the investigative committee of the Bavarian state parliament is to clarify the state government's mask business in the corona pandemic, possible participation by members of parliament and, in some cases, high commission payments to parliamentarians. The Ministry of Health repeatedly emphasized that in no case had commissions been paid by the Ministry to elected officials.
In addition to Spahn, there are many other politicians on the committee's list of witnesses, including Prime Minister Markus Söder, former Health Minister Melanie Huml and her successor Klaus Holetschek, and former Interior Secretary Gerhard Eck (all CSU). Dates for their interrogations have not yet been set.
Stephan Mayer, who resigned as CSU General Secretary and was State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of the Interior until 2021, has already testified. In addition, a large number of entrepreneurs and employees of the authorities have been summoned as witnesses.
