Scandals have dogged Mario Voigt for years. His name was linked to that of a company in the city of Jena -specialized in political campaigns and whose director previously worked for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU)-, which developed an application that was used in 2014 for the campaign of the Thuringian state elections. . Years later, in 2017, the data protection officers in Berlin and Thuringia checked the app when they were not sure what data could be collected and stored.
Although the company always denied data protection violations, the case hit the party and its ties to the campaign to the 2019 european elections. But there was more: On February 5, 2020, the political scene in Thuringia trembled. The leader of the parliamentary group of the Liberals (FDP), thomas kemmerichwas elected prime minister with the votes of the xenophobic party Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the CDU in the Thuringian State Parliament. A scandal in the ranks of the conservative party that finally resulted in the resignation of the state leader and CDU parliamentarian, Mike Mohring.
Voigt took over the chairmanship of the parliamentary group. Shortly after, in the spring of 2021, the accusations against mark hauptmann, another member of the Thuringian CDU. According to “Der Spiegel” magazine, Hauptmann allegedly used his Bundestag tenure to negotiate deals on the purchase of face masks during the pandemic. On March 25, 2021, agents from the Criminal Police Office searched his apartment and his offices and the Prosecutor’s Office accused him of bribing parliamentarians. In addition, the investigation found clues that linked Hauptmann with the Jena company and apparently, among the papers, the name of Mario Voigt appeared.
Suspicion of possible corruption fell on Voigt to such an extent that, in early May 2022, the Erfurt Prosecutor’s Office launched a process to lift his immunity, which was finally achieved at the end of that summer. A short time later, the media began to publish the first links between the 2019 EPP election campaign and Voigt. On September 17, the Thuringian Union held its state conference, where Mario Voigt was elected the new state president with 85% of the vote, making him the de facto leading candidate for the 2024 elections.
To calm the waters, Voigt published the financial statement of his consulting firm in the middle of that month and assured that he was not guilty of anything. However, the agents believe that received 17,000 euros commission as a liaison with one of the firm’s CEOs who had previously worked for the Thuringian CDU.
Voigt insisted that he had nothing to hide, but the prosecutor requested a search warrant for both his home and his parents’ house, and the Jena company premises were searched and documents and data carriers were seized. . Voigt’s lawyer, valentin sitzmann, called the accusations incomprehensible and exaggerated. “There isn’t even a solid basis for suspicion.”
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