MUNICH (dpa-AFX) – Former Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) defended his role in arranging a mask business at the beginning of the 2020 corona pandemic. It was an emergency situation at the time, Scheuer emphasized on Wednesday as a witness in the mask investigation committee of the Bavarian state parliament.
Everyone had the goal of eliminating the bottleneck in corona protective masks and helping. He therefore considered it important to forward offers to the central offices. Because he saw it as his duty to help to the best of his knowledge and belief. Otherwise there would have been accusations of inaction and more. “I would do everything the same way again,” stressed Scheuer.
At that time, Scheuer had brokered a mask delivery offer from a company from Lower Bavaria to the state government. In fact, the deal came about in the end: Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) and Scheuer received a load of masks that attracted the public. It later turned out that some of the masks delivered from China were defective and had to be replaced again.
The opposition sees preferential treatment in the mask business, also because of an SMS that Söder is said to have written at the time: “You have to take it, Scheuer has to guarantee that!” The SMS said, as can be seen from an internal email from the Ministry of Health . There is also a note that shows that the ministry did not want to recommend the procurement of the masks “technically” at the time.
The State Chancellery has already rejected the accusation that pressure had been exerted in an inappropriate manner: There was no preferential treatment. And no commissions were paid either.
The aim of the committee is to clarify the mask business of the Bavarian state government in the corona pandemic, possible involvement of politicians and sometimes high commission payments to members of parliament. The Ministry of Health repeatedly emphasized that the Ministry had never paid commissions to elected officials./ctt/xil/DP/stw