Tobias Josef Zech (born 9 July 1981) is a German politician of the
Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) who served as a
member of the Bundestag from 2013 until 2017 and from 2020 until 2021.
Early life and career
Zech was born in
Trostberg. After receiving
vocational training at
Edeka, Zech was a contract soldier in a combat company in Brannenburg. Since 2009 he studied business administration in
Munich University of Applied Sciences
The Munich University of Applied Sciences (HM) (german: Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften München) was founded in 1971 and is the largest university of applied sciences in Bavaria with about 17,800 students.
The Munich University of Appl ...
and joined
EADS
Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: '' ...
in Munich in 2010. Then Zech was a project manager of the Commercial Ludwig Bolkow research campus.
Political career
In 2002, Zech was elected to the regional council of
Garching an der Alz, where since 2007 worked as a tourism consultant and since 2008 as a fraction chairman of the CSU. In 2009 he was elected as a district chairman of the CSU Garching as well as regional chairman of the Junge Union of Altötting, since 2011 he worked as a regional Chairman of the Junge Union of Upper Bavaria's largest regional association of the Junge Union of Germany.
From 2013 until 2017 Zech served as a Member of the German
Bundestag, where he was a full member of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs and for Economic Cooperation and Development, and a deputy member of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Sustainable Development. On the Committee on Economic Cooperation and Development, he served as
rapporteur on
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
,
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
,
Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan,
North Korea,
South Korea,
Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan and
Uzbekistan.
From 2014, Zech was also a member of the German delegation to the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), where he served on the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination; the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy; the Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs; and the Sub-Committee on the
Middle East and the Arab World. He served as the Assembly's
rapporteur on
Lebanon.
Zech returned to the Bundestag in May 2020, when he succeeded
Astrid Freudenstein.
In March 2021 Zech became part of a political scandal. On 19 March 2021, he resigned from the Bundestag due to allegations related to Azerbaijan's "
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 ...
" and for receiving a large sum to campaign for former Macedonian PM
Nikola Gruevski. He continued business relations with that country through cannabis-related company PharmCann Deutschland AG.
Other activities
* German Military Reserve Association, Vice President (since 2016)
*
Katholische Arbeitnehmer-Bewegung (KAB), Member
Political positions
In June 2017, Zech voted against his parliamentary group’s majority and in favor of
same-sex marriage.
Diese Unionsabgeordneten stimmten für die Ehe für alle
'' Die Welt'', 30 June 2017.
Personal life
Zech is a Roman Catholic; he is married and has two children.
References
Living people
1981 births
Christian Social Union in Bavaria politicians
People from Traunstein (district)
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