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Minister of the Interior of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lorenz Caffier, resigns over the purchase of weapons from a suspected right-wing extremist. It seems that a successor has already been found.
Following the resignation of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Interior Minister Lorenz Caffier, the former CDU parliamentary group leader in the Schwerin state parliament, Torsten Renz, will be his successor. The staff should be proposed to Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD), as was told at a CDU press conference on Tuesday evening in Schwerin.
Caffier: “I apologize for this”
Caffier resigned on Tuesday due to a weapons purchase from a suspected right-wing extremist in early 2018. “I bought a weapon from someone I shouldn’t have bought it from today. But: it wasn’t. the acquisition that was a mistake, but my management. I apologize for that, “said a personal statement from the minister. “Therefore I will resign as Minister of the Interior and of Europe at the end of today”. Caffier served as interior minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania for 14 years, making him Germany’s longest-serving interior minister.
According to Caffier, there was only reliable evidence of right-wing extremist ideas at the arms dealer in May 2019. When he bought the gun privately in early 2018, neither the Interior Ministry nor the State Office for Criminal Investigation (LKA), the State Bureau for the Protection of the Constitution, the Secretary of State for the Interior or himself had no knowledge of the seller’s right-wing extremist tendencies.
No more authority needed for the office
However, the arms trafficker’s name had already been mentioned in July 2017 in a testimony by an informant to federal authorities about the activities of the right-wing extremist “Prepper” network. The information on this was then sent to the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution MV, but apparently remained there.
In his resignation statement, Caffier stressed that it hurt him deeply that media coverage suggested he was close to right-wing circles. “I can only flatly reject this accusation. It is simply absurd.” Caffier was instrumental in initiating the ultimately unsuccessful ban request against the right-wing extremist NPD. “I must admit that in this situation I no longer have the necessary authority to be able to exercise the office of interior minister with all my strength until September 2021”.
Caffier wants to keep the mandate of the state parliament
Caffier also wrote that he wanted to protect his environment and especially his family. “I also want to avoid damage to the government, the coalition and ultimately the country,” Caffier said. He wants to keep his mandate in the state parliament.
Caffier has held the post of Interior Minister since 2006 and was also Deputy Prime Minister in the state government of Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD). Schwesig had asked Caffier over the weekend to clarify the circumstances of the arms purchase. Caffier had previously evasively answered a question of whether he privately purchased a weapon as a hunter from or through a former member of a right-wing extremist group.
Waldmüller will become parliamentary group leader
Torsten Renz (56) has been chairman of the second largest parliamentary group in the state parliament of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania since February 2020. He moved to the top after his predecessor Vincent Kokert surprisingly retired from state politics. Health Minister Harry Glawe (CDU) will be proposed as the new Deputy Prime Minister.
According to information, Wolfgang Waldmüller will be the new leader of the parliamentary group of 18 members of the CDU. Fraction member Franz-Robert Liskow will take up the post of Parliamentary Director General.
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