"The mask affair", which erupted at the end of February, continues to spill a lot of ink in Germany and is on the headlines.

Two CDU deputies are accused of having received commissions on contracts for the purchase of masks, at the start of the Covid-19 epidemic.

They both resigned this weekend, but this politico-financial scandal greatly fragile Angela Merkel's party.

The first political scandal of this election year is on the front pages of German newspapers on Tuesday.

He hits the CDU, the party of German Chancellor Angela Merkel "like a slap in the face".

The

Tagesspiegel

 sums up the affair that broke out on February 25 after searches carried out in Bavaria in the office of Georg Nüsslein, one of the Conservative deputies involved.

He and Nikolas Löbel had to resign over the weekend as it became known that they had received commissions on contracts to purchase masks at the start of the Covid-19 epidemic. 

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Germany has not experienced any political-financial scandals since Merkel's arrival

They would have served as intermediaries between mask manufacturers and the authorities.

"They have been enriched by several hundred thousand euros", protests the tabloid

BZ

.

"An investigation is opened for corruption and the CDU is in the eye of the storm," writes the

FAZ

.

Because if the two elected officials returned their mandate and left the party on Monday, in a country that has not experienced any politico-financial scandal since Angela Merkel has been in power, the damage is enormous.

However, on Sunday, there are regional elections in two Länder.

These are local elections, but as the

Südthüringer Zeitung

specifies

, they obviously have the value of a test in view of the legislative elections next September.

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Georg Nüsslein was one of the vice-presidents of the CDU and Nikolas Löbel (34) one of its youngest members.

The latter had initially announced that he would quit his duties as deputy in the summer, but under pressure, he reversed his decision and left his post.

This is not going to help the CDU which keeps declining in the polls.