> The agreement stipulates that the CSU will be in charge of the “super–high-tech ministry,” as party leader Markus Söder called it in a press conference this week. The CSU has not proposed a minister yet, but it’s widely expected that Dorothee Bär, who was in charge of “digital infrastructure” in previous governments under former Chancellor Angela Merkel, will get the nod.
Sounds like her only non-political experience is working as a journalist.
It's arguable that the "corrupt" part was scrubbed off Wikipedia. But her credentials to lead a research / technology / aerospace ministry certainly sound underwhelming.
She hired her future husband as an employee until immediately before their wedding. This position was paid by the federal German parliament, i.e. the taxpayer. It's illegal to hire a relative in such a position.
You're claiming this, but average German internet speed has but recently surpassed Latvia's, easily beats Paraguay and the Philippines and is closing in on Montenegro and Barbados.
The recent rapid improvements even diminished Romania's lead to less than 250%.
Of course this is only up to the Telekom speedtest server, beyond that nearly all of Germany's 50-100Tbps get funneled through 362Gbps of interconnections onto the open internet.
Digital infrastructure was part of traffic ministry.
Her role was coordinating the government's mostly internal digital strategy. Thus reviewing new bills, looking at processes inside the administration etc. most of the work outside the public eye.
The CSU has a history of putting people in charge that do not benefit germany but bavaria (the only part of germany where the party CSU is active), e.g. Andreas Scheuer [1][2].
Notable recent examples of corruption are the Maskenaffäre [4] or Julia Klöckner and Nestlé ("Julia Klöckner and Nestlé show how the greasy closeness between politics and business can go too far" [5]).
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Scheuer: "Scheuer's ministry is said to have broken budgetary and public procurement law when concluding the multi-billion dollar contracts with the operators and "deliberately deceived" the Bundestag about the real costs of the car toll."
[2] Söder (party leader of CSU) said about Scheuer: "I don't know not many ministers that bring so much money to bavaria as Andreas Scheuer" [3]
[3] German: "Bei allem, was der ein oder andere kritisiert an dem Andi Scheuer: Ich kenne wenige Minister, die so viel Geld nach Bayern holen, wie der Andi Scheuer. Auch das muss man einfach mal in der Bilanz ehrlicherweise bitte nach draußen sagen."
This ministry will not be lead by any of these people. Their replacement isn't that much better competency wise, but there is no corruption case yet.
Your source 3 is not saying what you think it does. State government can apply for federal funding. Söder and his ilk have mastered this. There is nothing corrupt here.
I read a commemt in this discussion that Dorothee Bär has a case of corruption where she was employing her husband.
„Source 3“: Well, if you are a minister for infrastructure in germany it is not part of our job description to bring money to bavaria. Maybe my definition of corruption is of but the minister has some saying in how to use its funds and if your home state benefits more than other parts of germany… I would call this a form of corruption
> Dorothee Bär has a case of corruption where she was employing her husband
That is an unfortunate case of nepotism that happens in the entire political spectrum. I was especially disappointed of the Greens setting up cozy positions for friends and family at the end of their term. I really thought they'd do better..
> Well, if you are a minister for infrastructure in germany it is not part of our job description to bring money to bavaria
Why not? If you think Bavaria is the largest net benefactor of this measure you might as well do so. It's one out of many possible strategies.
> Maybe my definition of corruption is of
I think it's something else but I can't think of a word.
I was lumping all these behaviors together (as the abuse of entrusted power) but of course its better to be precise (thank you for introducing me to "nepotism").
I must say as a bavarian citizen that this "abuse" has lots of benefits for us. Of course I am aware of my bias here. I can't find an interview but Söder has said that a lot of other states don't even apply to all Fördergelder they could possibly get. That always striked me as odd.
