diff --git a/.murdock b/.murdock
index 60d2d8eeca..3194f4493e 100755
--- a/.murdock
+++ b/.murdock
@@ -329,24 +329,13 @@ run_test() {
 
 # execute static tests
 static_tests() {
-    local repo=${CI_BASE_REPO:-https://github.com/RIOT-OS/RIOT}
-    local branch=${CI_BASE_BRANCH:-master}
-
     print_worker
-
-    OUT="$(git remote add upstream $repo 2>&1 && git fetch upstream ${branch}:${branch} 2>&1)"
-    RES=$?
-    if [ $RES -ne 0 ]; then
-        echo "$OUT"
-        exit 1
-    fi
-
-    BUILDTEST_MCU_GROUP=static-tests ./dist/tools/ci/build_and_test.sh
+    ./dist/tools/ci/static_tests.sh
 }
 
 get_non_compile_jobs() {
     [ "$STATIC_TESTS" = "1" ] && \
-        echo "$0 static_tests###{ \"jobdir\" : \"exclusive\" }"
+        echo "$0 static_tests"
 }
 
 get_jobs() {
diff --git a/dist/tools/ci/build_and_test.sh b/dist/tools/ci/build_and_test.sh
index 633e880c3f..67c9982f1f 100755
--- a/dist/tools/ci/build_and_test.sh
+++ b/dist/tools/ci/build_and_test.sh
@@ -9,46 +9,6 @@
 
 CI_BASE_BRANCH=${CI_BASE_BRANCH:-master}
 
-function print_result {
-    local RED="\033[0;31m"
-    local GREEN="\033[0;32m"
-    local NO_COLOUR="\033[0m"
-
-    if (( "$1" == 0 )); then
-        echo -e "${GREEN}✓$NO_COLOUR"
-    else
-        echo -e "${RED}x$NO_COLOUR"
-    fi
-}
-
-RESULT=0
-set_result() {
-    NEW_RESULT=$1
-
-    if (( $NEW_RESULT != 0))
-    then
-        RESULT=$NEW_RESULT
-    fi
-}
-
-function run {
-    echo -n "Running '$@' "
-    OUT=$($@ 2>&1)
-    NEW_RESULT=$?
-
-    print_result $NEW_RESULT
-    set_result $NEW_RESULT
-
-    # Indent command output so that its easily discernible from the rest
-    if [ -n "$OUT" ]; then
-        echo "Command output:"
-        echo ""
-        # Using printf to avoid problems if the command output begins with a -
-        (printf "%s\n" "$OUT" | while IFS= read -r line; do printf "\t%s\n" "$line"; done)
-        echo ""
-    fi
-}
-
 if [[ $BUILDTEST_MCU_GROUP ]]
 then
     export BASE_BRANCH="${CI_BASE_BRANCH}"
@@ -80,23 +40,7 @@ then
             exit $RESULT
         fi
 
-        run make print-versions
-
-        run ./dist/tools/commit-msg/check.sh ${CI_BASE_BRANCH}
-        run ./dist/tools/whitespacecheck/check.sh ${CI_BASE_BRANCH}
-        DIFFFILTER="MR" ERROR_EXIT_CODE=0 run ./dist/tools/licenses/check.sh
-        DIFFFILTER="AC" run ./dist/tools/licenses/check.sh
-        run ./dist/tools/doccheck/check.sh
-        run ./dist/tools/externc/check.sh
-        run ./dist/tools/cppcheck/check.sh
-        run ./dist/tools/vera++/check.sh
-        run ./dist/tools/pr_check/pr_check.sh ${CI_BASE_BRANCH}
-        run ./dist/tools/coccinelle/check.sh
-        run ./dist/tools/flake8/check.sh
-        run ./dist/tools/headerguards/check.sh
-        run ./dist/tools/buildsystem_sanity_check/check.sh
-        run ./dist/tools/codespell/check.sh
-        exit $RESULT
+        exec ./dist/tools/ci/static_tests.sh
     fi
 
     if [ "$BUILDTEST_MCU_GROUP" == "host" ]; then
diff --git a/dist/tools/ci/static_tests.sh b/dist/tools/ci/static_tests.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..13002560ad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dist/tools/ci/static_tests.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+#
+# Copyright (C) 2020 Kaspar Schleiser <kaspar@schleiser.de>
+#               2020 Inria
+#               2020 Freie Universität Berlin
+#               2015 Philipp Rosenkranz <philipp.rosenkranz@fu-berlin.de>
+#
+# This file is subject to the terms and conditions of the GNU Lesser
+# General Public License v2.1. See the file LICENSE in the top level
+# directory for more details.
+#
+
+function print_result {
+    local RED="\033[0;31m"
+    local GREEN="\033[0;32m"
+    local NO_COLOUR="\033[0m"
+
+    if (( "$1" == 0 )); then
+        echo -e "${GREEN}✓$NO_COLOUR"
+    else
+        echo -e "${RED}x$NO_COLOUR"
+    fi
+}
+
+set_result() {
+    NEW_RESULT=$1
+
+    if (( NEW_RESULT != 0))
+    then
+        RESULT=$NEW_RESULT
+    fi
+}
+
+function run {
+    echo -n "Running \"$*\" "
+    OUT=$("$@" 2>&1)
+    NEW_RESULT=$?
+
+    print_result $NEW_RESULT
+    set_result $NEW_RESULT
+
+    # Indent command output so that its easily discernible from the rest
+    if [ -n "$OUT" ]; then
+        echo "Command output:"
+        echo ""
+        # Using printf to avoid problems if the command output begins with a -
+        (printf "%s\n" "$OUT" | while IFS= read -r line; do printf "\t%s\n" "$line"; done)
+        echo ""
+    fi
+}
+
+RESULT=0
+
+if [ -n "${CI_BASE_COMMIT}" ]; then
+    # on Murdock, there's no base branch in the checkout folder.
+    # Thus, tag it here.
+    echo "-- tagging ${CI_BASE_BRANCH} HEAD commit (${CI_BASE_COMMIT})"
+    git tag "${CI_BASE_BRANCH}" "${CI_BASE_COMMIT}"
+fi
+
+CI_BASE_BRANCH=${CI_BASE_BRANCH:-master}
+
+export BASE_BRANCH="${CI_BASE_BRANCH}"
+
+run ./dist/tools/commit-msg/check.sh "${BASE_BRANCH}"
+run ./dist/tools/whitespacecheck/check.sh "${BASE_BRANCH}"
+DIFFFILTER="MR" ERROR_EXIT_CODE=0 run ./dist/tools/licenses/check.sh
+DIFFFILTER="AC" run ./dist/tools/licenses/check.sh
+run ./dist/tools/doccheck/check.sh
+run ./dist/tools/externc/check.sh
+run ./dist/tools/cppcheck/check.sh
+run ./dist/tools/vera++/check.sh
+run ./dist/tools/pr_check/pr_check.sh "${BASE_BRANCH}"
+run ./dist/tools/coccinelle/check.sh
+run ./dist/tools/flake8/check.sh
+run ./dist/tools/headerguards/check.sh
+run ./dist/tools/buildsystem_sanity_check/check.sh
+run ./dist/tools/codespell/check.sh
+
+exit $RESULT