There are probably only a few politicians who have been advised to resign as often as Andreas Scheuer. Now the CSU politician has carried it out – and no one is taking it seriously. Of course, this has to do with the fact that Scheuer announced it on April 1st of all days, so an April Fool’s joke is somehow obvious. Then again, Scheuer is not exactly known for his self-deprecating jokes, which are aimed at the end of his political career. After all, as probably the most controversial transport minister in the republic, he fought bitterly against it for years.
So the news came late on Easter Monday calmly, but also with the necessary dash of pathos: “After today, April 1, 2024, I will resign my mandate as a member of the German Bundestag,” said the 49-year-old Scheuer. He would like to thank the many people for their support, loyalty and trust over such a long time. “It was an honor to be able to work for our country and for my homeland.”
What prompted him to take this step was not known on Tuesday; he left an inquiry from the FAZ unanswered. A few months ago he became a father for the second time, and the “Bild” newspaper reported that he was planning trips to the USA and Asia. His party is also likely to have been caught off guard by the news, especially since his empty seat in the Bundestag cannot be filled: the current electoral law does not provide for a replacement procedure in the case of the CSU, because it has more representatives than it is entitled to due to the many direct mandates.
Recognition from the CSU group leader
His predecessor as General Secretary and Federal Transport Minister, Alexander Dobrindt, found kind words of regret on Tuesday: The CSU is losing one of its high-profile people in the Bundestag with Scheuer, said the CSU regional group leader. As general secretary, Scheuer successfully contested election campaigns and modernized the party both in terms of content and with a new state leadership. As Federal Minister and Parliamentary State Secretary, he pushed forward the expansion of infrastructure and thought ahead to mobility in the 21st century with the topics of autonomous driving and the digitalization of mobility. “He deserves the highest thanks and recognition for his always highly committed and passionate commitment,” said Dobrindt.
So it wasn’t a lack of commitment that was his downfall during his time as Federal Transport Minister between 2018 and 2021, but rather an overly passionate commitment to the wrong cause: the car toll project in Germany has been burned out for the foreseeable future, even that Since its failure, the Greens have preferred to call for the dismantling of “climate-damaging subsidies” rather than making people pay directly for the use of their cars. It could be used to achieve a direct steering effect.
Handover of office to Volker Wissing (left) in December 2021.picture alliance/dpa
At the time, however, the CSU’s “foreigner toll” was not intended to be an effective means of climate protection. Instead, the Bavarians wanted to make their neighbors pay for using the local motorways – just like the Austrians, Swiss and French have been doing for decades. Scheuer was not the first, but the last Federal Transport Minister to commit to this project – and thereby put his entire career at risk. After the European Court of Justice declared the project to be contrary to European law in 2019 and the federal government was unable to come up with a permissible variant, the car toll stuck like bad luck to his traditional jacket.
Mishaps with the new catalog of fines
This was followed by a committee of inquiry into the hasty conclusion of contracts with the toll operator companies, which met in the middle of the Corona crisis, but hardly brought any new findings to light. For this, he brought Scheuer a criminal investigation into the accusation that he had testified falsely in front of the parliamentarians. The Berlin public prosecutor’s office is still investigating these allegations almost two years later.
At the end of his term in office, glitches in the new catalog of fines in the road traffic regulations also ruined the balance sheet of the CSU politician, who, despite some criticism, was credited with being more interested and committed to transport policy than many of his predecessors in office before him. In any case, he brought the necessary knowledge and experience with him when he became Federal Transport Minister in 2018 after a stopover as CSU General Secretary: between 2009 and 2013 he had already resided in the building at Invalidenpark as State Secretary under the then Transport Minister Peter Ramsauer. The man was already expansive, and he also had the urge to be in the spotlight – so the ministerial office was almost an inevitability.
Toll debacle costs the state 243 million euros
Federal transport ministers are often denied quick success: the ministry’s budget is huge, but investments in infrastructure usually take decades. So Scheuer didn’t have much left other than to initiate important projects: the expansion of the charging infrastructure for electric cars and the reform of the highway administration are among them. Deutsche Bahn is also a colossus with its own kind of problems. Scheuer has at least ensured that more money flows into the railways again.
But the toll debacle dominated the public. Because Scheuer terminated the contracts just as hastily as he had concluded them shortly before the turn of the year 2018/2019, the Federal Republic had to pay around 243 million euros in damages to the operating companies. However, Scheuer personally missed this low point: the amount was the result of years-long arbitration proceedings that his successor Volker Wissing had to complete.
The FDP politician then had the legal chances of getting some of Scheuer’s money back examined: The prospects presented by a legal opinion seemed unlikely to be successful, which is why Wissing shelved this plan last year. However, the incumbent Federal Transport Minister still has to deal with another affair from Scheuer’s time in office: the ministry is currently concerned with allegations that the former head of the policy department improperly influenced the awarding of state funding to a hydrogen association. This investigation is also not yet completed.
Scheuer and his successor will no longer be close friends anyway. The handover of office in December 2021 was somewhat bizarre. Scheuer, who was visibly shaken by the toll reporting, never tired of emphasizing that he had nothing to blame himself for. “I’m leaving here with my head held high,” said the CSU politician at the time. He sharply criticized how he and his employees were treated in connection with the investigative committee and castigated unfair comments. After his departure, like many former Union ministers, he took a seat on the opposition bench in the Bundestag and from then on lived the pleasant but rather untroubled life of a normal member of the Bundestag. This is now over. Andreas Scheuer is now taking a different approach.