Business premises of the European People’s Party (EPP) in Brussels have been searched in connection with investigations into the Thuringian CDU party and parliamentary group leader Mario Voigt. The Belgian authorities were thus providing legal assistance for the German investigators, said the spokesman for the Erfurt public prosecutor’s office, Hannes Grünseisen. The Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR) had previously reported on it.
The investigators were looking for information about Voigt’s activities in the 2019 European election campaign. It was about determining what influence the accused had on the award of an order to a Jena company, said Grünseisen. There is a suspicion that Voigt could have received money from this company after the company was commissioned by the EPP to conduct an online election campaign. The public prosecutor’s office has been investigating Voigt for several months on suspicion of corruption in commercial transactions.
The EPP confirmed that Belgian and German police officers had visited party headquarters in Brussels in connection with an ongoing investigation in Thuringia. “The party cooperates in full transparency with the authorities involved and provides all relevant information and documents,” the party wrote in a statement on its website. As the investigation is ongoing, no further comments will be made.
Voigt has rejected all allegations in connection with the investigation. He could not initially be reached for comment on Tuesday.
At the request of the Erfurt public prosecutor’s office, the Thuringian state parliament lifted Voigt’s immunity as a member of parliament in September 2022. In mid-October, several of the CDU politician’s premises were searched by the investigative authorities and evidence was secured.
