Nikolas Löbel
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Nikolas Löbel (born 17 May 1986) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as a member of the
Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...
from the state of
Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...
from 2017 to 2021. He resigned in March 2021.


Political career

In 2012, Löbel was a CDU delegate to the
Federal Convention The Constitutional Convention took place in Philadelphia from May 25 to September 17, 1787. Although the convention was intended to revise the league of states and first system of government under the Articles of Confederation, the intention fr ...
for the purpose of electing the
President of Germany The president of Germany, officially the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: link=no, Bundespräsident der Bundesrepublik Deutschland),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international corres ...
. Löbel became a member of the Bundestag after the
2017 German federal election Federal elections were held in Germany on 24 September 2017 to elect the members of the 19th Bundestag. At stake were at least 598 seats in the Bundestag, as well as 111 overhang and leveling seats determined thereafter. The Christian Democr ...
, representing the
Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's 2 ...
district. In parliament, he served on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Subcommittee on Disarmament, Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. In this capacity, he was his parliamentary group's
rapporteur A rapporteur is a person who is appointed by an organization to report on the proceedings of its meetings. The term is a French-derived word. For example, Dick Marty was appointed ''rapporteur'' by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Euro ...
on the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
's
Eastern Partnership The Eastern Partnership (EaP) is a joint initiative of the European External Action Service of the European Union (EU) together with the EU, its member states, and six Eastern European partners governing the EU's relationship with the post-Sovi ...
. In March 2021, ''
Der Spiegel ''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...
'' revealed that a company Löbel owned had earned a €250,000 commission by acting as a middleman between a mask supplier in Baden-Württemberg and two private, China related companies in the state amid the
COVID-19 pandemic in Germany The COVID-19 pandemic in Germany has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths. On 27 January 2020, the first case in Germany was confirmed near Munich, Bavaria. By mid February, the arising cluster of cases had been fully containe ...
. Facing public pressure, he subsequently resigned from his parliamentary seat and announced that he was retiring from politics.


Other activities

* Sparkasse Rhein Neckar Nord, Member of the supervisory board (2017 to 2021)


Political positions

Following the
2016 Baden-Württemberg state election The 2016 Baden-Württemberg state election was held on 13 March 2016 to elect the members of the 15th Landtag of Baden-Württemberg. The incumbent government of The Greens and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) led by Minister-President Winfried K ...
, Löbel supported the formation of a
coalition government A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...
 of the
Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...
and the Christian Democrats under
Minister-President A minister-president or minister president is the head of government in a number of European countries or subnational governments with a parliamentary or semi-presidential system of government where they preside over the council of ministers. It ...
Winfried Kretschmann Winfried Kretschmann (born 17 May 1948) is a German politician serving as Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg since 2011. A member of the Alliance '90/Greens, he was President of the Bundesrat and ''ex officio'' deputy to the President of G ...
, the first state-level government of the two parties to be headed by a member of the Green Party in German history. Ahead of the Christian Democrats'
leadership election A leadership election is a political contest held in various countries by which the members of a political party determine who will be the leader of their party. Generally, any political party can determine its own rules governing how and when a l ...
in 2021, Löbel publicly endorsed
Jens Spahn Jens Georg Spahn (born 16 May 1980) is a German politician who served as Federal Minister of Health in the fourth cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2018 to 2021. A member of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he has been ...
to succeed
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (; Kramp; born 9 August 1962), sometimes referred to by her initials of AKK, is a retired German politician who served as Minister of Defence from 2019 to 2021 and as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from ...
as the party's chair.


Controversies


Lobbying for Azerbaijan

As chairman of the Baden-Württemberg
Young Union The Junge Union Deutschlands (''Young Union of Germany'') or JU is the joint youth organisation of the two conservative Germany, German Political party, political parties, Christian Democratic Union of Germany, CDU and Christian Social Union in Ba ...
, Nikolas Löbel came under criticism from both the CDU and
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
, for a planned sponsorship of 2,000 euros by a student network from Azerbaijan at the state parliament of the Baden-Württembe Young Union in 2012, since the student network in question was funded by Azerbaijani state-owned oil and gas company
SOCAR The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic ( az, Azərbaycan Respublikası Dövlət Neft Şirkəti), largely known as SOCAR is fully state-owned national oil and gas company headquartered in Baku, Azerbaijan. The company produces oil and na ...
and other Azerbaijani companies with ties to its autocratic leader -
Ilham Aliyev Ilham Heydar oghlu Aliyev ( az, İlham Heydər oğlu Əliyev, ; born 24 December 1961) is the fourth president of Azerbaijan, serving in the post since 31 October 2003. The son and second child of the former Azerbaijani leader Heydar Aliyev, ...
, who's been criticized for continued and serious violations of human rights. As a result, the sponsorship fell through. In March 2021 several Bundestag members of the ruling Union coalition became subjects of criminal investigations on the initial suspicion of corruption, for receiving payments from the
Azerbaijani Laundromat The Azerbaijani laundromat is a complex money-laundering scheme organized by Azerbaijan that was revealed by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) in September 2017. The investigations exposed that during two years between 2 ...
money laundering scheme, while others were implicated in allegations of corrupt lobbying practices known as "
Caviar diplomacy Caviar diplomacy is a lobbying strategy of Azerbaijan, consisting of costly invitations to foreign politicians and employees of international organizations to Azerbaijan at the expense of the host country. Caviar diplomacy also includes expensive ...
" in the European Council or what became known as the "Azerbaijan affair" (german: Aserbaidschan-Affäre) in Germany. In this context Löbel's strong advocacy for Azerbaijani interests during the
2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war The Second Nagorno-Karabakh War was an armed conflict in 2020 that took place in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenian-occupied territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh, the surrounding territories. It was a major escalation of ...
between
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
and
Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...
raised some eyebrows as Löbel took a one-sided stance backing the position of Azerbaijan in the conflict. He also dismissed criticism of human rights violations in Azerbaijan, stating that it is "not to be compared with a democracy based on the Western model", but "an important strategic partner" for Germany as a natural gas supplier and possible importer of "German products and goods".


"Mask affair" scandal and resignation

In April 2020, Löbel brokered contracts for protective mask deliveries from China to Germany by Bricon Technology GmbH. According to his own statements, he received a commission of 250,000 euros for this deal. Löbel described this as being in line with the market, but admitted that he lacked sensitivity. This information became known in the context of a series of articles published by German press in March 2021, revealing how several Bundestag members from the leading Union coalition had brokered deals for PPE with lucrative commissions for themselves, which led to intense criticism from members of all parties in the Bundestag, including the CSU/CDU Union and led to what became known as the so-called "Mask Affair" (german: Maskenaffäre) scandal in Germany. The first article about Löbel having asked for a commission was published in Der Spiegel on 5 March 2021.  On the same day he stepped down from the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Bundestag. On 7 March 2021, in response to the "Mask Affair", he announced that he would resign from his Bundestag mandate as well as his membership of the municipal council in Mannheim on 31 August 2021 and not run again for the Bundestag and he would also end his membership in the CDU / CSU parliamentary group with immediate effect and give up the district chairmanship of the Mannheim CDU. He apologized for having "violated the obligations of his office with his conduct". A number of politicians from different parties criticized him for not giving up his mandate immediately, pointing out that, in addition to regular MP benefits and allowances, he thus keeps his entitlement to an additional year of retirement allowances (german: Altersentschädig) for MPs, noted the independent organization Abanderswatch.de, citing the MPs Act. The CDU federal chairman
Armin Laschet Armin Laschet (; born 18 February 1961) is a German politician who served as Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia from 27 June 2017 to 26 October 2021. He served as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 22 January 2021 to 3 ...
criticized his "greed mentality"  and distanced himself from MPs who "had nothing on their minds but to earn money." On 8 March 2021, in response to political and media pressure, Löbel announced that he was giving up his parliamentary mandate with immediate effect in order to avoid "further damage to his party" shortly before two state elections were about to take place in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate".
Maskenaffäre: CDU-Abgeordneter Löbel legt sein Bundestagsmandat sofort nieder.
' (Memento vom 10. März 2021 im ''
Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
''), Eilmeldung, In: ''tagesschau.de'', ARD, 8. März 2021.
He left the Bundestag two days later. The CDU district association Mannheim also announced on March 8 that Löbel had resigned from the CDU "with immediate effect". At the end of March 2021, the Stuttgart Public Prosecutor's Office announced that after examining the allegation of "bribery of elected officials" in connection with the mediation of mask business, "due to a lack of initial suspicion, it would refrain from initiating investigative proceedings"; In their opinion, there is "in the present case no direct connection between the private activity and the activity as a member of the Bundestag."


References


External links

*
Bundestag biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lobel, Nikolas 1986 births Living people Members of the Bundestag for Baden-Württemberg Members of the Bundestag 2017–2021 Members of the Bundestag for the Christian Democratic Union of Germany