00:01German politics is generally seen as honest and transparent.
00:07Germany is the world's ninth cleanest country, according to Transparency International.
00:12Here, pale blue shows countries transparency ranks as clean,
00:16and the darker the blue, the more corrupt on the ranking.
00:21But Germany's parliament has recently seen a series of scandals, prompting outrage.
00:26Several MPs from Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative bloc have stepped down as a result.
00:33Allegations include MPs taking payments from Azerbaijan's government in exchange for support.
00:39Others profited from deals to make or supply face masks in the pandemic.
00:43Now many say Germany needs tougher laws to control its MPs.
00:48What happened in the last weeks in Germany is a huge threat for, in general, the trust of citizens towards
00:58their politicians.
01:00It's something that will turn so many people away from politics, and that's a huge problem.
01:08We cannot let it happen, and it's a big danger, I think, for democracy.
01:15So, what can and can't Germany's politicians do?
01:20German MPs receive a pre-tax salary of around €10,000 per month.
01:26They are allowed to earn money on the side, as long as their work as an MP is their main
01:31focus.
01:34About a third of MPs say they do have other sources of income.
01:39They must declare how much they earn on top of their government salary,
01:43once the extra is more than €1,000 a month or €10,000 a year.
01:48But they don't have to declare the exact amount, and there's no upper limit.
01:56MPs also have to make a declaration if they own more than 25% of a company.
02:02But they don't have to reveal what their companies do, which other firms they do business with, or how much
02:08all of that is worth.
02:10Critics say that leaves too much room for conflicts of interest.
02:15If there are rules in Germany, people generally follow the rules.
02:20But if you don't have a rule, of course, people take the liberty not to necessarily follow any moral guidelines,
02:29but take it to their advantage.
02:30And at the moment there are, unfortunately, a lot of loopholes in the codes of conduct for members of parliament.
02:37As long as there are loopholes, there will be people trying to take advantage of it.
02:41The government has recognised it needs to change things.
02:45The key parties have drafted suggestions to tighten the laws.
02:50Critics say the plans are still too weak, and the overall situation has attracted international attention.
02:57Last year, the Council of Europe's Group of States Against Corruption called on the German government
03:02to set up stricter rules around transparency.
03:06Its report said parliament needed stronger safeguards against conflicts of interest,
03:10and also highlighted another area of concern – lobbying.
03:15Lobbyists work the corridors of power using various tactics to influence political decisions.
03:20They can represent huge companies or whole industries, but also single-issue campaigns and smaller interest groups.
03:27Lobbyism in itself is not something bad.
03:30In a representative democracy, interest groups should have direct contact to the politics.
03:39If we don't know as a public how and who influenced a law when a law is passed,
03:49in the end we cannot check if all the interests were heard.
03:55Germany has no official record of who is working to influence which decisions,
04:00or how much time and money they spend doing it.
04:04So compared to many other Western nations, such as the UK, such as France, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands,
04:12Austria even – and Austria is famously corrupt – Germany doesn't really have a lot of rules.
04:18Germany's governing coalition recently agreed to set up a lobby register.
04:23It will force lobbyists to say who they work for.
04:26Making a false or incomplete statement could cost up to €50,000 in fines.
04:32But the register won't require them to say who they meet or how much they spend.
04:37Experts say the proposal is a step in the right direction, but that it should go much further.
04:42So in the end what we would get with the current lobby register would be a names list of who
04:51is lobbying.
04:52But we lack actually the rest of the information.
04:56If you want transparency and you don't get it completely covered, then you won't have half of transparency.
05:02You won't have any at all.
05:04With Chancellor Merkel set to leave politics after September's election, Germany is entering a period of upheaval.
05:10Democracy depends on voters trusting the system.
05:14And soon they'll show politicians just how deep that trust runs.
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