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Tobias Zech, an MP for Bavaria’s CSU, the sister party of Angela Merkel’s CDU party, resigned from his position in the German Bundestag over allegations of conflict of interest, the Passauer Neue Presse and Münchner Merkur reported on Thursday evening.
News of the resignation came after Der Spiegel reported Zech had in 2016 accepted a “five-digit sum” to campaign for former North Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and lobby for his party. “I do not consider it legally problematic. But politically, you cannot act that way,” Zech told PNP.
Gruevski was convicted on corruption charges in North Macedonia and was sentenced to two years in prison, but fled to Hungary in 2018 to avoid jail.
In a text to his political allies, reported by news agency DPA, Zech wrote: “I am doing this to protect my family and to avoid damage to my party caused by potential sweeping prejudgments.”
Zech’s resignation is the fourth among Merkel’s CDU/CSU alliance in the Bundestag this month. The CSU’s Georg Nüßlein and CDU’s Nikolas Löbel left their parliamentary group and announced they would not seek reelection following revelations they were suspected of bribery over face masks procurement deals. The CDU’s Mark Hauptmann resigned amid allegations about payments from Azerbaijan.
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