Two credits and a greeting
Lindner Counsel: Conditions that are always customary on the market
01/09/2023 11:46
After reports of impending criminal proceedings against Finance Minister Lindner, his party friend Kubicki was outraged by the Berlin judiciary. Lindner’s lawyer explains that greeting the bank, which has granted the minister two loans, is part of his usual duties.
Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner has once again rejected the allegations in connection with a loan for the purchase of his private house. The “Tagesspiegel” reported that the minister had made a video speech for the bank that financed the purchase of his house. The prosecutor’s office is now looking into waiving Lindner’s parliamentary immunity, the paper said. Lindner’s lawyer Christian Schertz said: “Mr. Lindner started his private real estate financing long before he took up his ministerial post. All conditions were always familiar in the market. Granting a short greeting on anniversaries such as the centenary of a bank forms part of the regular duties of a minister.”
The “Tagesspiegel” reported that Lindner held the greeting for a private customer bank in Karlsruhe in May 2022 and “apparently hid” that he had taken out a loan from the institution. Because after the farewell he had another loan from the same bank, he is now threatened with criminal prosecution for accepting an advantage. The corruption department of the Berlin public prosecutor’s office is currently looking into waiving Lindner’s immunity as a member of parliament in order to formally investigate.
A spokesman for the attorney general’s office said, according to the newspaper, that this was “normal in these cases and without a statement being made as to the existence of an initial suspicion”. Last fall, the “Spiegel” reported allegations in connection with Lindner’s real estate financing. Schertz explained that there was no connection between the two processes: the salute and the private real estate financing. Lindner sees “today’s dealings with composure”.
Kubicki denounces “significant violation of personal rights”
FDP deputy Wolfgang Kubicki sharply criticized the Berlin judiciary because of the reports. “The reports that the Berlin public prosecutor’s office is examining the waiver of Christian Lindner’s immunity in order to investigate suspicion of a possible advantage are an unprecedented lack of political character and a significant violation of personal rights, which it must have personal consequences,” wrote Kubicki. in a statement. He asked: “The Berlin justice senator should resign, but at least the attorney general should be fired.”
Kubicki, who is also deputy president of the Bundestag, stressed that it is not the prosecutor’s office that decides on the waiver of immunity, but only the German Bundestag. A separate waiver of immunity is not required to start the investigation, just a notification to the President of the German Bundestag. A waiver of immunity is only necessary if there are searches, arrests or charges in the room. Kubicki said: “This extraordinary trial proves once again that the Berlin Senate is on the way to completely ruining the federal capital, both factually and morally.”