Money matters - Significant Contribution to CDU: Legal Action against Bundestag Administration
A hefty donation of 820,000 euros made to the Berlin CDU has sparked a legal battle. Elected official Martin Sonneborn and his party, the associates of which are satirists and MEPs, filed a lawsuit against the Bundestag administration on Tuesday at the Berlin Administrative Court. They believe the administration should deem this donation as illegal and impose penalties on the CDU.
In 2020, a real estate tycoon named Christoph Gröner and his business handed over that sum to the Berlin CDU, just before the 2021 state election. The public perceived Gröner's words as a proposal for reciprocal favors for the donations. Despite the outcry in the media regarding influence peddling the year before, Gröner and the then Berlin CDU chair, Kai Wegner, dismissed the accusations.
In July 2023, the Bundestag administration in charge of verifying party donations stated that no breach of the Party Law had occurred, following an investigation. The CDU also put out a statement proving they were innocent of the "influence donation" allegations, claiming that no political decisions had been bought.
Nevertheless, LobbyControl - an organization focused on lobbying practices - published a report in September 2023, claiming the donation had a high likelihood of being illegal. They challenged other parties to join them in taking legal action against the Bundestag administration for imposing fines, as per the Party Law, which could be up to three times the sum of an illegal donation under certain circumstances. Currently, Sonneborn's organization, Die Partei, is widely welcoming this move.
LobbyControl Report Press Release
Amount "Zeit Online"
Statement by DIE PARTY
