Passau.
After a two-year break, the parties in Bavaria once again invited to their traditional Ash Wednesday rallies. It got down to business.
Not only did the carnivalists have to stop their activities for three years because of Corona and the war in Ukraine, the traditional political blundering on Ash Wednesday was also eliminated. As a result, the expectations were mainly for the appearance of the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) in Passau is particularly large. Because this year there is an election in Bavaria. A new state parliament will be elected on October 8th. All major parties in the Free State had their own events planned. It was about swearing in the party base and this time the attacks on the respective political opponents were correspondingly hearty.
“We’re pulling together and standing up for the state elections. It will be a marathon at full steam,” said CSU boss Söder. For the first time in three years, the CSU chairman was able to face the fully occupied Passau Dreiländerhalle dish out against political competitors. An appointment that suits Söder. In addition, the starting position is better than in 2018 and “much better than after the federal election in 2021,” says Söder. The CSU is on the up – and the opposition is unsettled. “The surveys are stable again, the trend is upwards,” said Söder. All current surveys see the best chances that the CSU can continue its current government coalition with the Free Voters. Söder ruled out a coalition with the Greens again: “We don’t do black-green in Bavaria.”
Söder’s declared main opponent: The Greens
His main opponents in the almost two-hour speech were then greens, which he had zeroed in on, warned that the Greens were a security risk for Germany and called on Chancellor Olaf Scholz to contain his foreign minister: “This feminist foreign policy by Annalena Baerbock – is that foreign policy or proselytizing?” Söder asks, adding: “The world should probably heal on green beings.” In this way, Germany will become the “lonely woman in Europe,” rumbled the CSU boss, thereby entering the gender debate. Bavaria is “not a forced state, but a free state” where everyone can speak and eat what he or she wants, said Söder to loud applause.
As expected, with the traffic light government in the federal government, Söder brought up sharp guns. “This is the worst federal governmentthat Germany ever had,” said the Bavarian head of state to thunderous applause from around 4,000 party supporters in Passau. “Everyone’s talking about a turning point, but so far it’s only been slow motion.” The chancellor shouldn’t travel the world, but take care of the problems at home, such as the refugee debate. In any case, Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) was not very convincing at the summit with her state colleagues, said Söder. If Faeser doesn’t soon make suggestions about how the influx of migrants will be controlled, how the municipalities will be relieved and how they can get more money, “then she will be the next Mrs. Lambrecht in Scholz’s cabinet,” said Söder.
The Franconian sees his home state as generally disadvantaged anyway. He complained that there was no direct representative bavaria in the federal government and thus embezzled Claudia Roth, who as Minister of State for Culture and Media is definitely part of the cabinet.
Also Berlin got in Söders Ash Wednesday Speech his fat gone. The CSU boss called on Mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) to finally accept the “democratic result” and vacate her chair. In the Berlin elections in mid-February, the CDU became the strongest party for the first time in over twenty years. But the previous government alliance of SPD, Greens and Left retains the majority and wants to continue the coalition.
Söder threatens again with a lawsuit against state financial equalization
All in all, Markus Söder left no doubt as to which federal state is the most beautiful for him: Bavaria has the best food and “the lowest crime rate nationwide”. A swipe Berlin he distributed again: “By the way, the one in Berlin is three times as high.” As long as the incumbent left-wing alliance in Berlin remains in government, the Free State will “no longer transfer money to Berlin via the state financial equalization system,” said Söder and announced once again against to sue for financial compensation. The CSU chairman hid the fact that Bavaria had tried to do just that in 1999 and 2013 – unsuccessfully. In addition, his party helped initiate the current regulation a few years ago, when the grand coalition with the federal states agreed on a reorganization of financial relations. The fact is: around 17 billion euros were redistributed between the federal states in 2021. The largest donor country is actually Bavaria, it pays in nine billion alone, thus contributing 60 percent of the financial equalization.
It became quieter in the hall when Söder told the story of a woman and her husband with dementia. It was the only break in his speech, which was otherwise peppered with pithy sayings. In which he used well-known and sometimes shallow jokes to serve the party base. In any case, it brought him the desired effect: a lot of applause at the end and in between. What was missing? The state-supporting part with which Söder could recommend himself for the chancellor candidate question in the Union. Possibly a conscious decision: There are still two years to go before the next federal election, in Bavaria there will already be elections in eight months.
Greens and SPD subject Söder’s policy to a fact check
The Greens Federal Chair Ricardo Lang accused Söder, among other things, of “arithmetic tricks” in the figures for the expansion of renewable energies. In recent years, the expansion of wind power in Bavaria has been overslept and the potential has not been used – this is how Söder is endangering the prosperity of Bavaria and Germany. Even at the Ash Wednesday events of the FDP and SPD, criticism of the Bavarian state leader and the CSU was not spared.
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