BERLIN — Germany’s Bundestag lifted the parliamentary immunity of a senior conservative lawmaker on Thursday, allowing his offices to be searched over corruption allegations.
Investigators raided 13 properties in Germany and Liechtenstein as part of a probe into suspected corruption and bribery of elected officials related to the procurement of coronavirus face masks, the Munich prosecutor’s office told German media.
Multiple media outlets reported that the offices of Georg Nüßlein, the deputy parliamentary leader of the governing Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU), were among the searched properties. The relevant Bundestag committee had unanimously decided to lift his immunity earlier on Thursday.
According to local media, Nüßlein is suspected of having received a €650,000 commission for acting as a broker between a face mask manufacturer and the federal and Bavarian governments. He also allegedly did not pay taxes on the fee.
There is currently no arrest warrant for Nüßlein, who on Thursday told Bavarian public broadcaster BR that the allegations were “baseless.â€
Nüßlein, 51, is a health expert for the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He has held the position of the conservative alliance’s deputy parliamentary leader since 2014 and received Germany’s federal cross of merit in 2016.
