Georg Fahrenschon (born 8 February 1968) is a German politician of the
Christian Social Union (CSU). From 2008 to 2011, he served as finance minister in the Bavarian State Ministry of Finance. He was a member of the
Bundestag of
Germany until 2007.[1]
Following the
2002 federal elections, Fahrenschon became a Member of the German Bundestag, where he served on the Finance Committee. Within the Finance Committee, he was the
CDU/CSU parliamentary group’s
rapporteur on Germany's
Transparency Directive Implementation Act (Transparenzrichtlinie-Umsetzungsgesetz, TUG), among others.
In 2011, Fahrenschon presented a proposal envisaging tax cuts of 5 billion euros ($6.5 billion) for lower- and middle incomes by 2013, the year of the subsequent federal election; this move put him in conflict with federal Finance Minister
Wolfgang Schäuble, who wanted to delay tax cuts to cut Germany’s budget deficit.[4]
President of the German Savings Banks Association, 2012-2017
In October 2011, it became known that both Fahrenschon and
Steffen Kampeter, Parliamentary State Secretary at the
German Finance Ministry would be seeking the presidency of the DSGV after incumbent Heinrich Haasis stepped down.[5]
In 2012, Fahrenschon led Germany’s savings banks in helping quash a proposal for Europe-wide deposit guarantees.[6] He later sought to limit the remaining aspects of a European banking union, namely a joint resolution fund and central supervision of all the region’s lenders.[7] Eventually, it was agreed that day-to-day supervision of all but one of the 417 Sparkassen – the largest, the
Hamburger Sparkasse is the exception – would remain in German hands.[8]
In November 2017, shortly before Fahrenschon was scheduled to stand for re-election for another six-year term,[9] prosecutors in Munich charged Fahrenschon with
tax evasion; he admitted to having filed his tax statements for 2012, 2013 and 2014 too late but denied the allegation and declined to pay a fine.[10] Following internal and public pressure, he resigned from his post.[11]