Investigations against Berlin SPD leader: Still full immunity

The Hanover public prosecutor's office leaves it open whether it has requested the lifting of SPD leader Steffen Krach's parliamentary immunity or when it might intend to do so. “I can’t tell you anything about that at the moment,” the public prosecutor’s press spokesman, Oliver Eisenhauer, told taz. He promised more information for the coming week.

According to Eisenhauer, the investigations against Krach have been on hold since he officially became a member of the House of Representatives, where he leads the SPD parliamentary group. This has been the case since the first session of the new parliament two weeks ago. According to his own statements, Krach himself would not defend himself against the lifting of immunity.

On September 9th, eleven days before the House of Representatives election, the Hanover public prosecutor's office had Krach's private rooms and the Kurt Schumacher House, the Berlin SPD headquarters, searched. The background is investigations into the sale of a clinic site in Lehrte, a town of 44,000 people east of Hanover. Krach is involved because he was involved with the sale in his previous job as regional president of Hanover.

There is a suspicion that confidential information may have flowed irregularly. The public prosecutor's office is also investigating a donation of 9,900 euros by a bidder to the Berlin SPD. Krach has rejected all allegations and presented evidence of the prompt transfer of the donation back on September 10th.

The House of Representatives did not want to comment on the question of whether an inquiry or request from the public prosecutor regarding immunity had already been received. “We cannot provide any information on this,” said parliamentary press spokesman Denis McGhee to the taz. The last time the House of Representatives lifted the immunity of a member of parliament was in 2019. At that time, the public prosecutor's office was investigating hit-and-run and driving under the influence of alcohol after an accident.

It is not necessary that the public prosecutor's office has put the investigation on hold since Krach has been elected to parliament. Like the Bundestag, the House of Representatives has a so-called general authorization for investigations in its rules of procedure: The public prosecutor's office is therefore allowed to investigate parliamentarians, but must inform the house leadership - Hendrikje Klein (Left Party) has been president since the end of October - about this. This emerges from an appendix to the statutes.

This authorization expressly does not include bringing legal action against the Member of Parliament concerned or detaining MPs. The background to parliamentary immunity is primarily to protect the opposition from political or legal arbitrariness.

According to its press office, the SPD parliamentary group in the House of Representatives also has no information regarding the waiver of immunity. When asked by taz, Steffen Krach himself said: "I have no problem with the lifting of my immunity. On the contrary, I want the investigation to continue without restrictions and to be ended quickly."

Krach was the SPD's top candidate in the House of Representatives election and aimed to become head of government in the Red City Hall. However, his party only came in fifth place in the election, behind the Left Party, CDU, AfD and Greens. The result of 12.1 percent was the worst the SPD has ever achieved in a House of Representatives election.

The SPD parliamentary group, which had shrunk to 21 members, elected Krach, who is also the SPD state leader, as its chairman. He is currently leading the negotiations for a red-green-red coalition led by the Left Party. In his own words, Krach does not want to become a member of the future Senate. “I will not be a member of the next government in Berlin,” he said shortly after the election.