Tobias Josef Zech (born 9 July 1981) is a German politician of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) who served as a member of the Bundestag from 2013 until 2017 and from 2020 until 2021.[1]
Tobias Josef Zech | |
|---|---|
 Tobias Zech 2009 | |
| Member of the Bundestag for Bavaria | |
| In office 25 May 2020 – 19 March 2021 | |
| Preceded by | Astrid Freudenstein |
| Succeeded by | Bernd Fabritius |
| In office 22 October 2013 – 24 October 2017 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 9 July 1981 Trostberg, Bavaria, Germany |
| Political party | Christian Social Union of Bavaria |
| Occupation | Politician |
Early life and career
editZech was born in Trostberg. After receiving vocational training at Edeka, Zech was a contract soldier in a combat company in Brannenburg. Since 2009 he studied business administration in Munich University of Applied Sciences and joined EADS in Munich in 2010. Then Zech was a project manager of the Commercial Ludwig Bolkow research campus.
Political career
editIn 2002, Zech was elected to the regional council of Garching an der Alz, where since 2007 worked as a tourism consultant and since 2008 as a fraction chairman of the CSU. In 2009 he was elected as a district chairman of the CSU Garching as well as regional chairman of the Junge Union of Altötting, since 2011 he worked as a regional Chairman of the Junge Union of Upper Bavaria's largest regional association of the Junge Union of Germany.
From 2013 until 2017 Zech served as a Member of the German Bundestag, where he was a full member of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs and for Economic Cooperation and Development, and a deputy member of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Sustainable Development. On the Committee on Economic Cooperation and Development, he served as rapporteur on China, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, North Korea, South Korea, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
From 2014, Zech was also a member of the German delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), where he served on the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination; the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy; the Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs; and the Sub-Committee on the Middle East and the Arab World.[2] He served as the Assembly's rapporteur on Lebanon. [3]
Zech returned to the Bundestag in May 2020, when he succeeded Astrid Freudenstein.[4]
In March 2021 Zech became part of a political scandal.[5] On 19 March 2021, he resigned from the Bundestag due to allegations related to Azerbaijan's "Caviar diplomacy" [6] and for receiving a large sum to campaign for former Macedonian PM Nikola Gruevski.[7] He continued business relations with that country through cannabis-related company PharmCann Deutschland AG.[8]
Other activities
edit- German Military Reserve Association, Vice President (since 2016)
- Katholische Arbeitnehmer-Bewegung (KAB), Member
Political positions
editIn June 2017, Zech voted against his parliamentary group’s majority and in favor of same-sex marriage.[9]
Personal life
editZech is a Roman Catholic; he is married and has two children.
References
edit- ^ Sven Becker, Martin Knobbe, Sven Röbel, Gerald Traufetter, Keno Verseck and Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt (18 March 2021), Lobbyismus: Weiterer CSU-Abgeordneter tritt zurück Der Spiegel.
- ^ "Deutscher Bundestag - Zech, Tobias". Archived from the original on 11 February 2015. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
- ^ heimatzeitung.de. "Zech in den Bundestag?". heimatzeitung.de. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
- ^ Tobias Zech wieder im Bundestag Passauer Neue Presse, 15 May 2020.
- ^ Welt.de: Abgeordneter Zech legt Bundestagsmandat und Parteiämter nieder (german), March 2021
- ^ "Aserbaidschan-Affäre: Der Diktator, die CDU, der Moderator und das Geld". www.vice.com (in German). Retrieved 18 April 2021.
- ^ German conservative MP quits over conflict of interest allegation politico.eu, 19 March 2021.
- ^ Tobias Zech und sein Auftrag aus Skopje (german) Der Spiegel, 18 March 2021.
- ^ Diese Unionsabgeordneten stimmten für die Ehe für alle Die Welt, 30 June 2017.
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