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KKR bigwig Johannes Huth has emerged as a major donor to German election frontrunner Friedrich Merz’s centre-right party as campaigning intensifies ahead of next month’s election.
Huth, the former head of the US private equity giant’s Europe and now a senior advisory partner, donated 50,000 euros to the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) on January 2, according to Bundestag revelations.
The donation contrasts with previous German elections, when Huth twice decided to back only the liberal FDP, led by former finance minister Christian Lindner, according to Abgeordnetenwatch, a campaign transparency group.
The CDU is leading in the polls ahead of the February 23 election. A former chairman of US asset manager BlackRock in Germany, many expect Merz to become the next chancellor of the eurozone’s largest economy.
Huth declined to comment. A person familiar with the situation said the executive remained a supporter of the FDP at a similar level, without providing further details.
Donations in Germany are not limited and are announced by the Bundestag when they exceed 35,000 euros. Parties that secure at least 0.5 percent of the vote in EU or parliamentary elections – or at least 1 percent in regional elections – also receive public funding.
Records show that Huth’s colleague at KKR, Philipp Freise, who is now one of the heads of the firm’s European private equity operations, stuck by Lindner, donating 50,000 euros to the FDP in early December.
It was made a few weeks after the social democratic chancellor Olaf Scholz dismissed the finance minister from his three-party government and prepared the ground for early elections. Freise has donated to the Liberal Party in the past two elections, as well as to the CDU in 2017. Freise declined to comment.
The CDU and sister party CSU have raised more than 4 million euros from individual and corporate donations of more than 35,000 euros – almost half of the total announced since Lindner’s November 6 ouster.
Among the donors is Goldman Sachs senior banker Christoph Brand, who donated 37,500 euros this month, following a gift of 40,000 euros last April. Although Brand used the address of Goldman Sachs’ Frankfurt office, a person familiar with the matter told the Financial Times that the donation was made in a personal capacity and unrelated to the bank. Brand is a long-time party member and treasurer of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, a foundation affiliated with the CDU.
Goldman declined to comment. Brand declined to comment through a spokesman.
Rick van Aerssen, one of three global partners at Magic Circle law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, donated 50,000 euros to the CDU in January. Van Aerssen said he has been a member of the CDU since he was young and regularly donates in a private capacity.
Polls show that Merz’s party could win around 30 percent of the vote, which would make it the largest political party in parliament. The business community has rallied behind Merz, who has promised to cut corporate taxes and red tape to revive stagnant Germany. economy.
Huth’s new bet on the CDU also comes as the FDP is forecast to win around 4 percent of the vote on February 23, below the 5 percent threshold to secure a seat in the Bundestag. Lindner’s party, which secured 11.5 percent in 2021, has suffered since it emerged that FDP officials planned to hasten the collapse of the coalition.
Huth and Freise are prominent business people in Germany. Both sit on the supervisory board of Axel Springer, the Berlin-based media empire that owns Politico as well as a powerful German tabloid Bild and broad leaf Die Welt.
Their donations are the latest political intervention by senior figures at the company, which is close to completing its €13.5bn spin-off from KKR after a five-year partnership.
Another member of the supervisory board, businessman Martin Varsavsky, said last week that he had facilitated the article by Elon Musk, which he published in late December Welt am Sonntagin which the richest man in the world expressed his support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
