Enlarge image

Karl Lauterbach's warnings are "baseless, wrong and inappropriate"

Photo: Michael Kappeler / dpa

Hendrik Hoppenstedt, CDU member of the Bundestag and chairman of the mediation committee, has firmly rejected criticism from Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach.

His “insinuation” that he was “violating my duties as committee chairman for party-tactical considerations” were “unfounded, false and inappropriate.”

In a letter available to SPIEGEL, Hoppenstedt, who is also the parliamentary director of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, gives the minister some help on political processes.

Lauterbach has “obviously not yet dealt in detail with the practices of the mediation committee and the constitutional and rules of procedure requirements,” writes the lawyer.

Health Minister Lauterbach had previously warned against delaying the planned legalization of cannabis in the Federal Council on April 1st.

“Every country co-governed by the SPD and the Greens must know that the cannabis law will die next Friday if you call the mediation committee,” the SPD politician wrote on X.

On Sunday he added: "If federal states force cannabis law into the mediation committee, it will no longer come out." This meant that the unique opportunity to "end failed cannabis policy" was missed.

And finally: “Using tricks, a law that 400 members of the Bundestag voted for would be stopped.”

The law would not have failed, just delayed

Hoppenstedt points out in his letter that it is not his job to determine the topics of the mediation committee.

“If a meeting is called, all laws on which the Mediation Committee has been referred must be put on the agenda,” he writes.

The meeting dates would be set together with his co-chair, the SPD politician Manuela Schwesig, Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania - "after prior discussions with everyone involved and in agreement between both chairmen."

If the mediation committee were called upon, the law would not have failed, as Lauterbach had warned.

This would only be the case if the Constitutional Committee no longer met during this legislative period - and that would "probably be classified as unconstitutional," writes Hoppenstedt.

Cannabis legalization is one of the traffic light's central socio-political projects.

The Bundestag has decided on it, and the Bundesrat will deal with the issue on March 22nd.

If the state chamber agrees, the law could come into effect as planned on April 1st.

Accordingly, cultivation of the drug should become legal for adults to consume themselves with numerous requirements.

As of July 1st, non-commercial “cultivation associations” will also be allowed to cultivate collectively.

The changes do not require approval in the state chamber, but the Federal Council could appeal to the mediation committee and thus delay the procedure.

This is exactly what is now emerging.

mgo