Did German politicians plan shady deals at Harbour View Bar? The hotel was prominently mentioned in a German late night show
‘What was really going on at the Grand Hotel Excelsior in Malta?’
German TV presenter Jan Böhmermann has made mysterious references to the 5-star hotel in Floriana in his ZDF late-night show on Friday night.
“Dear spectators, dear guests of the Grand Hotel Excelsior in Malta! Today’s episode of ‘ZDF Magazin Royale’ is dedicated to a topic that is – for me as a friend of crooked business and abuse of power – very close to my heart. It is about corruption in the Union.”
A picture of protective face masks was shown next to Böhmermann, presumably referring to the ‘German Mask Affair‘ scandal within the christian-democratic CDU/CSU (‘the Union’), revealed by Der Spiegel in March.
“First of all, a few names. One has to be careful so that it doesn’t become justiciable. That has nothing to do with corruption in itself: Klöckner, Nüßlein, Löbel, Amthor”, the late-night presenter said.
The former MPs Georg Nüßlein and Nikolas Löbel have been accused of having received six-figure kickbacks for brokering business deals between mask manufacturers and the German government.
Nüßlein, who reportedly received a commission of €660,000, left the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in March. Löbel, who allegedly pocketed €250,000, resigned from MP immediately.
Last week, a court ruled that Georg Nüßlein’s behaviour doesn’t constitute corruptibility or corruptibility of elected officials. Nüßlein could still face other criminal charges, together with regional MP Alfred Sauter and an involved businessman.
Sitting MP Philipp Amthor, who was at the center of a separate lobbyism affair in 2020, was not criminally investigated by the attorney general due to ‘lack of initial suspicion’.
Former minister and sitting MP Julia Klöckner has not yet been named in connection with these scandals.
“Now two questions: What was really going on at the Grand Hotel Excelsior in Malta? And secondly: Why are [MP] Florian Hahn …”
Jan Böhmermann stopped in order to answer a made-up phone call of the “programme director” who asked him “not to say anything bad about the Union”.
The late-night show presenter simply went on saying “New topic: We go after the shitty Greens”, leaving 2.18 million viewers wondering what really went down at Grand Hotel Excelsior.
Jan Böhmermann is an award-winning German satirist, journalist, podcast and television host, best-known for his activism through publicity stunts.
His weekly late-night show ‘ZDF Magazin Royale’ on the public television channel ZDF regularly publishes investigative stories, reaching an average of 2.5 million viewers per episode.
It remains unclear whether Böhmermann will actually publish the Excelsior story in one of the upcoming episodes or whether his Friday night stunt came as a reaction to internal censorship.
