Olav Gutting | |
|---|---|
 Gutting in 2009 | |
| Member of theBundestag | |
| Assumed office 2002 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1970-10-14)14 October 1970 (age 55) |
| Citizenship | German |
| Party |  German:CDU  EU:European People's Party |
| Alma mater | University of Mannheim |
Olav Gutting (born 14 October 1970) is a German lawyer and politician of theChristian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of theBundestag since 2002.
Gutting was born 1970 in the West German town ofBruchsal and studiedjurisprudence at theUniversity of Mannheim.[1]
In 2001 Gutting entered the CDU and became already in 2002 nominee of his party in the electoral ward ofBruchsal – Schwetzingen. He has been a member of the Bundestag since the2002 elections, representing Bruchsal – Schwetzingen.[2]
In parliament, Gutting has been serving on the Finance Committee. In this capacity, he is his parliamentary group’srapporteur on the so-calledsolidarity surcharge (Solidaritätszuschlag orSoli).[3]
Within theCDU/CSU parliamentary group, Gutting has been part of the leadership since 2013, under successive chairmenVolker Kauder (2013-2018) andRalph Brinkhaus (since 2018). He was one of the MPs who voted for Brinkhaus to oust Kauder in 2018.[4] Later that year, he ran for the post of deputy chairman but lost againstAndreas Jung.[5][6]
Within the CDU, Gutting is regarded as critic ofChancellor Angela Merkel's decision to enter into acoalition government with the center-leftSocial Democratic Party (SPD) after the2017 elections.[10] In June 2017, he voted against Germany's introduction ofsame-sex marriage.[11] In early 2020, he co-founded an informal cross-party group of MPs from the CDU, CSU andFDP parties who opposed a potential coalition government between CDU/CSU and theGreen Party.[12]
Ahead of the Christian Democrats’leadership election, Gutting publicly endorsed in 2020Friedrich Merz to succeedAnnegret Kramp-Karrenbauer as the party's chair;[13] he later also expressed support for a candidacy ofJens Spahn.[14]
In March 2021, Gutting and other members of theUnion parliamentary group came under criticism for their lobbying activities for the authoritarianAzerbaijani presidentIlham Aliyev.[15][16] The controversy became known under the name of "Aserbaidschan-Affäre"[17][18] in Germany and is related to the earlier "Caviar Diplomacy" corruption allegations in theCouncil of Europe.[19]
