The mood in the Berlin SPD is tense. Two days after the search of Steffen Krach's apartment, key party members are very worried about the Social Democrats' election results in the House of Representatives election on September 20th. They don't want to be quoted as having these worries on Friday. They also remain publicly silent about the allegations made by the Hanover public prosecutor's office against the SPD's top candidate.
It is now clearer what it is about: On Thursday evening, the public prosecutor's office announced that it was investigating Krach because of an initial suspicion of a competition-restrictive agreement in a tender in unison with violation of trade secrets and a duty of confidentiality. There is also initial suspicion of accepting benefits in two cases.
What does Steffen Krach say?
Krach reacted immediately: The investigation was about a donation from an entrepreneur to the Berlin SPD, “which was said to have been requested from me on two occasions in connection with an official procedure,” he said a few hours later. “On the other hand, it is about an alleged inadmissible disclosure of a bidder’s offer as a business secret in connection with a bidding process for a property.” He explained again that “these allegations against me are unfounded.”
Krach's information was more specific than in the press conference on Thursday afternoon. There he had announced that the donation from a businessman from Lower Saxony was the subject of the investigation. He wanted to buy property from the Hanover Hospital Association, whose supervisory board chairman Krach was regional president. The money was received by the Berlin SPD at the end of last year during the bidding process. The party transferred it back a week and a half later at his instigation.
At the request of the F.A.Z. Krach also admitted in the press conference that there were allegations of having revealed secrets through an intermediary. He did not say that he had requested the donation twice. He also did not mention that the transfer of the trade secret was about a competitor's bidding offer. On Friday, many Social Democrats asked themselves why Krach remained imprecise here. Further questions from the F.A.Z. He did not respond to the allegations on Friday.
Many supporters of noise want to remain publicly silent
In the Berlin SPD, all of the F.A.Z.'s interlocutors went on Friday. assumes that there will be no replacement of the top candidate before the election. This is not organizationally feasible. Krach also continues to have loyal supporters: "The members continue to stand behind Steffen Krach. He reacted very well to the allegations," said the domestic policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group in the House of Representatives, Martin Matz, to the F.A.Z. on Friday. In his opinion, citizens "have more critical questions for the Hanover public prosecutor's office than for Steffen Krach. Many people find the timing of the house search shortly before the election strange."
Other noise supporters are more cautious. They assure you that they will continue to make noise. Some even say they will support him after the election if he tries to replace long-time SPD parliamentary group leader Raed Saleh despite the ongoing investigations and a poor election result. But you don't want to be quoted. Some are worried that more details could come to light in the coming days that weigh on Krach. Others fear that Saleh will win the power struggle that has been expected for months in the SPD after the election with a bang. They don't want to incur Saleh's wrath.
The SPD parliamentary group leader said on Thursday that the SPD parliamentary group recognized “neither political nor criminal relevance” in the donations matter and found “the temporal connection” of the public prosecutor’s measures “with democratic elections questionable”.
The top candidates of the other parties with a chance of becoming the governing mayor have not yet commented specifically on the allegations. Stefan Evers (CDU) and Werner Graf (Greens) simply said they trusted the judiciary. Elif Eralp (Left) does not want to comment on ongoing proceedings. According to polls after the election, all three would be dependent on the SPD and another coalition partner to achieve a majority in the House of Representatives.
