Manuela Schwesig accused of using a stamp for Covid decree signatures

Legal expert Ralf Ludwig observed that the signatures of Manuela Schwesig on three 2020 Covid measures are exactly the same down to the pixel, suggesting a facsimile stamp rather than a handwritten mark. Under the state’s administrative code, a minister-president must sign each decree personally, and the Bundesarbeitsgericht has previously ruled that stamps do not satisfy this requirement. Ludwig further argues that the documents’ metadata show they were finalized late in the evening, making it implausible that they were printed, dried, cut and mailed in time to take effect the same day.

He suspects a staff member, not Schwesig herself, applied the stamp. If true, the orders could be deemed legally invalid because procedural deadlines were not met.