Peter Gauweiler | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1949-06-22)22 June 1949 (age 75) Munich,Bavaria,West Germany (nowGermany) |
| Citizenship | German |
| Nationality |  Germany |
| Political party | CSU |
| Spouse | Eva Gauweiler |
| Children | Four |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Profession | Lawyer |
Peter Gauweiler (born 22 June 1949) is a German lawyer and politician ofBavaria'sChristian Social Union (CSU) who served as a member of the GermanBundestag from 2002 to 2015, representing theMunich South district. From 2013 until 2015, he also served as deputy leader of the CSU, under the leadership of chairmanHorst Seehofer. He resigned his parliamentary seat and leadership post in 2015 at age 65.
Gauweiler is considered aEuro-sceptic and made a name with partly successful constitutional complaints against theeuro bailout fund and theLisbon Treaty.[1]
Gauweiler was born inMunich,Bavaria. He joined the CSU in 1968 and held an elected offices from 1972, first in the Munich City Council, and later in theBavarian state parliament.[2] In 1987, during Gauweiler’s time as secretary of state in the State Interior Ministry, Bavaria put into effect some of the stiffestAIDS regulations ordered anywhere in the world, including mandatory blood tests for prostitutes, drug addicts, prison inmates, applicants for civil-service jobs and some foreigners seeking residence in Bavaria.[3]
From1990 to1994, Gauweiler served asBavarian State Minister for Regional Development and Environment in the government ofMinister-President Max Streibl. Most notably during that time, he demanded that theParty of Democratic Socialism and theGerman Communist Party be outlawed afterGerman reunification.[4]
Gauweiler first became a member of the German Bundestag in the2002 elections.
From 2006, Gauweiler served as a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Chairman of the Sub-Committee on Foreign Cultural and Educational Policies of the GermanBundestag. In 2009, he accompanied German foreign ministerFrank-Walter Steinmeier on what was the first visit toIraq by a German foreign minister in 22 years.[5] Along with fellow lawmakers includingMonika Grütters,Luc Jochimsen andClaudia Roth, Gauweiler traveled toIran in 2010 to meet withAli Larijani,Manouchehr Mottaki and others; the trip was heavily criticized by international human rights organizations.[6] In 2012, he argued that the German government's gold reserves held in the United States should be repatriated.[7]
Following the2009 federal elections, Gauweiler was part of the CDU/CSU team in the negotiations with the FDP on a coalition agreement; he joined the working group on foreign affairs, defense and development policy, led byFranz Josef Jung andWerner Hoyer. Similarly, he participated in the negotiations on forming a so-calledGrand Coalition with the SPD following the2013 federal elections.
In November 2013, Gauweiler was elected deputy chairman of the CSU,[8] in what was widely considered a move to appease the eurosceptic elements within his party.[9] He resigned the post and his seat in the Bundestag on 31 March 2015, about three months before his 65th birthday; he had previously been strongly criticized by CSU leaderHorst Seehofer for voting against the extension of financial aid forGreece.[10] After his resignation he was immediately invited to become "a top official", by one report, in the euro-skepticAlternative für Deutschland (AfD) party but he declined the invitation. The same report speculated that the resignation would cause ChancellorAngela Merkel more difficulty by removing a protector of her right political flank in the parliament.[11]
Over many years, Gauweiler has led several attempts to have the German constitutional court block measures that he considers enhance the EU’s powers at the cost of national sovereignty.[12] Although his legal cases have generally failed, he has gained support from conservative voters, including members of the eurosceptic AfD party.[13]
In 1992, Gauweiler described theMaastricht Treaty as a "totalitarian dream", and called its key component, a common currency by 1999, as "Esperanto money".[14] In 2008, he challenged the German ratification of theTreaty of Lisbon, claiming that the treaty was unconstitutional. He launched a similar challenge to theEuropean Constitution in 2005, but theFederal Constitutional Court of Germany made no ruling and a presidential signature was never given.[15][16] In 2008, he challenged the Treaty of Lisbon before the constitutional court, saying that the proposed reforms of the EU would undermine the independence of the German Parliament and clash with the German Constitution.[17]
Gauweiler has also been among the most aggressive challengers of theEuropean Central Bank's efforts to rescue the Euro at the Constitutional Court.[18] In 2011, together with a group of academics, he unsuccessfully asked the court to block the country’s participation in thebail-out packages for Greece and in theEuropean Financial Stability Facility, the predecessor of theEuropean Stability Mechanism.[19] In 2012, Gauweiler filed a complaint against the ESM and included opposition to abanking license for the bailout fund.[20] Gauweiler claimed that the ECB's bond-buying program threatened Germany with unlimited losses,[21] arguing that it is an additional ground to reject use of German tax revenue for the rescue fund.[22] He managed to convince a majority of justices on the court's second senate that the ECB's program to save the European common currency was contrary toEuropean Union law. The judges subsequently referred the case onward to theEuropean Court of Justice in Luxembourg, a first for the German court.[23]
On 27 January 2015 Gauweiler voted against theMerkel government’s proposal for a four-month extension of Greece's bailout; in doing so, joining 29 dissenters from the CDU/CSU parliamentary group who expressed scepticism as to whether the Greek government underPrime MinisterAlexis Tsipras could be trusted to deliver on its reform pledges.[24]
Gauweiler showed an early understanding for Russia's territorial claims against Ukraine. In September 2014, Gauweiler referenced a letter fromAleksandr Solzhenitsyn toBoris Yeltsin in 1991, in which Solzhenitsyn referred toNovorossiya ("New Russia") and many other areas of Ukraine beyond the Dnieper River as historically never belonging to Ukraine.[25]
During the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014, Gauweiler criticized the behavior of the German government towards Russia. He described demands for economic sanctions and increased troop presence as "saber rattling" and "dangerous posturing." The United States and the European Union had brought Germany "into a dangerous escalation of threats." According to Gauweiler, the West had ignored and constantly frustrated Russia after the fall of the Iron Curtain.[26]
In March 2014, Gauweiler stated on behalf of his party: "We are for partnership. We are for partnership with Kyiv, but Moscow belongs just as much to Europe and we will not allow European Russia to be excluded by Kyiv, by others. We are for cooperation with Russia." Gauweiler called for a return of German policy to the "wisdom" ofFranz Josef Strauss and approvingly quoted his statement: "Whenever Germany and Russia had good relations, it was always good for Europe."[27][28][29]
On September 12, 2014, Gauweiler traveled to Moscow to open the "Year of Language and Literature in Russia and Germany" as chairman of the Bundestag subcommittee on foreign cultural and educational policy. During his visit, he criticized the sanctions policy against Russia. He said that it was a cowardly policy that was going in the wrong direction. Experiences in Iran and Iraq had shown that such punitive measures did not work. It was necessary to build bridges and talk to each other. "Russia belongs to Europe! Sanctions are the wrong way."[30]
In February 2023, Gauweiler was one of the initial signers ofManifest für Frieden, a petition calling for an end to military support toUkraine in the wake of the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[31]
From 1996 to 2019, Gauweiler was a partner in the law firm Bub, Gauweiler & Partner in Munich.[32] Among other high-profile cases, the firm represented Gauweiler’s friend[33] and onetime media mogulLeo Kirch in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit againstDeutsche Bank.[34] Notable clients also included theGovernment of Qatar,[35]Wirecard[36] andM. M. Warburg & Co.[37]
In 2021,Süddeutsche Zeitung revealed that Gauweiler had been receiving consultancy fees amounting to more than eleven million euros byeurosceptic billionaireAugust von Finck during his time in parliament.[38]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
