“There are many reasons for the decline, and they all have to do with the pandemic,” said Bild. The slump is bad news for the conservatives ahead of regional elections in the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Wuerttemberg on March 14. Adding to Merkel’s woes is a growing scandal linked to the procurement of face masks early on in the pandemic. A CSU lawmaker, Georg Nuesslein, was last month placed under investigation for bribery following accusations that he accepted some 600,000 euros to lobby for a mask supplier. A similar controversy has embroiled CDU lawmaker Nicolas Loebel whose company took a 250,000 commission for acting as an intermediary in mask contracts.

Source: The Local March 07, 2021 10:30 UTC