Olav Gutting

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.

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

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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