Merkel's party hit by mask graft scandal

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, or CDU, has been hit by scandal after it emerged two MPs benefited financially from contracts for the purchase of pandemic face masks.

The country's international news service Deutsche Welle says Nikolas Lobel has apologized, quit the center-right party's parliamentary group, and will resign from the Bundestag at the end of August.

A company run by Lobel took commissions of around 250,000 euros ($300,000) for brokering sales contracts for masks between a supplier in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, where elections are coming up, and two private companies.

"To be a member of the German Bundestag and be able to represent my hometown Mannheim is a great honor and an especially moral obligation," he wrote in a statement. "With my actions I have failed to live up to these standards. For that I would like to apologize to everyone in this country."

But Susanne Eisenmann, the CDU candidate for governor in Lobel's home state, said his apology did not go far enough. "It is unacceptable for parliamentarians to enrich themselves in this serious crisis," she told Der Spiegel magazine.

Armin Laschet, newly appointed CDU leader, added: "All of us, politicians on the federal, regional and municipal level, are doing all we can at the moment to bring this country through the crisis and protect people.

"And whoever does business with this protection, and who personally enriches himself from that, is no representative of the people. And he must leave parliament at once."

The news about Lobel, and a second MP, Georg Nuesslein, comes at a particularly sensitive time for the CDU. Not only has the government's handling of the pandemic, which was initially praised, come in for increasing criticism, but there is an election in September. It will be Laschet's first major popularity test since replacing Merkel as party leader.

Merkel, who became chancellor in November 2005, will not be seeking another term.

Nuesslein is a prominent member of the Christian Social Union, the CDU's sister party in Bavaria, and faces an inquiry into allegations around mask procurement deals, in which he denies any wrongdoing.