Weimer Media Group: Three ministers have agreed to the Ludwig Erhard summit in 2026 | EUROtoday

April 2026 continues to be some time away, however a number of federal ministers have already introduced their participation within the Ludwig Erhard Summit. This emerges from the federal authorities’s response on Friday to a written query from Green Party politician Sven Lehmann.

The doc is accessible to the German Press Agency. These are Research Minister Dorothee Bär (CSU), Chancellor Thorsten Frei (CDU) and Agriculture Minister Alois Rainer (CSU). All three are additionally listed as “speakers” on the summit web site. Federal Minister of Economics Katerina Reiche has additionally been requested to attend, and Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU), who can be introduced as a participant, would be the patron.

In response to a request, the Ministry of Agriculture mentioned that, as issues presently stand, it was deliberate for Minister Rainer to provide a political speech. The Research Ministry referred to a authorities press convention in November wherein it was mentioned that the minister deliberate to provide a speech. Frei’s spokesman mentioned that participation within the occasion was presently deliberate.

The Ludwig Erhard Summit at Tegernsee has been organized since 2014 by the Weimer Media Group, which was based by Minister of State for Media and Culture Wolfram Weimer (impartial) and his spouse. In latest weeks there have been reviews that the organizers are providing participation packages for tens of hundreds of euros and are promoting potential “influence on political decision-makers”.

Weimer had given up features and voting rights within the media group when he joined the federal government. He just lately introduced that he would initially hand over his 50 % firm shares to a trustee. The different half of the corporate nonetheless belongs to his spouse, who can be the corporate’s managing director.

Green Party politician Lehmann calls potential participation “strange”

Lehmann, chairman of the Committee for Culture and Media, criticized the potential participation of the three cupboard members within the occasion. “It is strange that three federal government ministers still want to take part in the Ludwig Erhard summit despite existing conflicts of interest.”

He additionally says: “For members of the government, at least the same rules should apply that are also binding for members of parliament. Any appearance of mixing of interests or undue influence must be consistently prevented.”

At the top of November, authorities spokesman Stefan Kornelius mentioned that the federal authorities had no considerations about participation. The ministers obtained neither advantages nor charges for this, and the apply of taking part in such occasions is not going to change in the interim.