Olav Gutting
Olav Gutting in 2009
Member of the Bundestag
Assumed office
2002
Personal details
Born (1970-10-14) 14 October 1970
Bruchsal, West Germany
(now Germany)
CitizenshipGerman
Political party German:
CDU
 EU:
European People's Party
Alma materUniversity of Mannheim

Olav Gutting (born 14 October 1970) is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag since 2002.

Early life and education

Gutting was born 1970 in the West German town of Bruchsal and studied jurisprudence at the University of Mannheim.[1]

Political career

In 2001 Gutting entered the CDU and became already in 2002 nominee of his party in the electoral ward of Bruchsal – Schwetzingen. He has been a member of the Bundestag since the 2002 elections, representing Bruchsal – Schwetzingen.[2]

In parliament, Gutting has been serving on the Finance Committee. In this capacity, he is his parliamentary group’s rapporteur on the so-called solidarity surcharge (Solidaritätszuschlag or Soli).[3]

Within the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Gutting has been part of the leadership since 2013, under successive chairmen Volker Kauder (2013-2018) and Ralph Brinkhaus (since 2018). He was one of the MPs who voted for Brinkhaus to oust Kauder in 2018.[4] Later that year, he ran for the post of deputy chairman but lost against Andreas Jung.[5][6]

Other activities

  • Nuclear Waste Disposal Fund (KENFO), Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2022)[7]
  • KfW, Member of the Board of Supervisory Directors (since 2019)[8]
  • German Association for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (BVMW), Member of the Political Advisory Board (since 2022)[9]

Political positions

Within the CDU, Gutting is regarded as critic of Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to enter into a coalition government with the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) after the 2017 elections.[10] In June 2017, he voted against Germany's introduction of same-sex marriage.[11] In early 2020, he co-founded an informal cross-party group of MPs from the CDU, CSU and FDP parties who opposed a potential coalition government between CDU/CSU and the Green Party.[12]

Ahead of the Christian Democrats’ leadership election, Gutting publicly endorsed in 2020 Friedrich Merz to succeed Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer as the party's chair;[13] he later also expressed support for a candidacy of Jens Spahn.[14]

Controversy

In March 2021, Gutting and other members of the Union parliamentary group came under criticism for their lobbying activities for the authoritarian Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev.[15][16] The controversy became known under the name of "Aserbaidschan-Affäre"[17][18] in Germany and is related to the earlier "Caviar Diplomacy" corruption allegations in the Council of Europe.[19]

References

  1. ↑ "Deutscher Bundestag - Olav Gutting". Deutscher Bundestag.
  2. ↑ "Olav Gutting". CDU/CSU-Fraktion.
  3. ↑ Christian Ramthun (1 February 2022), Union erhöht den Druck: Das Soli-Problem des Christian Lindner Wirtschaftswoche.
  4. ↑ Guy Chazan (September 26, 2018), Merkel’s loss of right-hand man represents unprecedented revolt Financial Times.
  5. ↑ Beate Tenfelde (October 9, 2018), Wieder eine Kampfkandidatur: Ein Hauch von Anarchie in der CDU Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung.
  6. ↑ Andreas Jung zum neuen Unionsfraktions-Vize gewählt Der Spiegel, October 9, 2018.
  7. ↑ Governance Nuclear Waste Disposal Fund (KENFO).
  8. ↑ 2018 Annual Report: Report of the Board of Supervisory Directors KfW.
  9. ↑ Political Advisory Board German Association for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (BVMW).
  10. ↑ Guy Chazan (February 7, 2018), German conservatives smart at coalition concessions Financial Times.
  11. ↑ Diese Unionsabgeordneten stimmten für die Ehe für alle Die Welt, June 30, 2017.
  12. ↑ „Liberal-konservativer Kreis“: Bundestagsabgeordnete bilden neues Forum Deutschlandfunk, January 4, 2020.
  13. ↑ Walter Serif (September 12, 2020), „Ich werde Merz wählen“ Mannheimer Morgen.
  14. ↑ Lukas Eberle, Florian Gathmann, Christoph Hickmann, Timo Lehmann, Veit Medick and Sabrina Winter (October 9, 2020), Kampf um CDU-Parteivorsitz: "Hinter Spahn können sich alle versammeln" Der Spiegel.
  15. ↑ "How an Authoritarian Regime Infiltrated a Government in the Heart of Europe". www.vice.com. 29 March 2021. Retrieved 2021-04-10.
  16. ↑ "Aserbaidschan-Affäre belastet CDU Karlsruhe-Land: Von der Stutensee-Mafia zur Baku-Connection". Badische Neueste Nachrichten (in German). 2021-03-13. Retrieved 2021-04-10.
  17. ↑ "Aserbaidschan-Affäre: CDU-Bundestagsabgeordneter Olav Gutting räumt Kontakte ein". www.rnz.de (in German). Retrieved 2021-04-10.
  18. ↑ Aktuell, S. W. R. "Kritik an Karlsruher CDU-Abgeordneten wächst". swr.online (in German). Retrieved 2021-04-10.
  19. ↑ "Caviar Diplomacy - How Azerbaijan silenced the Council of Europe | ESI". www.esiweb.org. Retrieved 2021-04-10.
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