Reiner Haseloff: His withdrawal is not a disaster. He’s right

The AfD clerks step off. Reiner Haseloff will not run again for the office of Prime Minister in Saxony-Anhalt. The CDU politician said that now, a good year before the state election. A quake, it is now said in many places. A turning point. A disaster.

Yes, the oldest prime minister of the Federal Republic withdraws, an experienced man, undoubtedly. Authentic. Down -to -earth. And relentlessly against the radical AfD, which for the first time seems to have real chances of the seat majority in a state parliament. She came to a good 37 percent of the second votes in the Bundestag election in Saxony-Anhalt.

And yet: Haseloff’s retreat and the handover of the top candidate to a younger one are correct.

First, a generation change was due. Or should the long -term prime minister of the Republic, which would be 72 on election day, start as a walking life insurance of democracy until he is 100? Already in 2021 he actually wanted to stop. And finally, the burden of the office was noticed more often than before. Should he keep the AfD small at some point? Please don’t.

Second, a plural democracy is not a one-man show. The CDU has another, presentable candidate: Sven Schulze, 46, CDU state chairman, since 2021 Haseloff’s Minister of Economic Affairs, before that in the European Parliament. Born in Saxony-Anhalt. He may still be more unknown than the father. But the election campaign is still beginning.

And thirdly: In times when democratic politicians are constantly talking about the “last shot for democracy”, the decision seems remarkably courageous. And clever. Because the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt breaks its central election campaign topic: With its 34-year-old top candidate Ulrich Siegmund, the party had set an election campaign against the “Joe Biden von Sachsen-Anhalt”.

However, Haseloff has to be chalk up: he hesitated for far too long with the decision and thus produced a monthly guesswork. This now makes the election campaign for Schulze shorter and heavier than necessary. Haseloff would have had to build him more than his successor.

Now Schulze only has to catch up a lot within one year: to popular, popularity and political power. And not from the office of Prime Minister, which still occupies Haseloff.

At the joint press conference of the two, the fact that the Minister of Economics has potential was flashed: “5000 telephone numbers are more important for this state than half a million follower on Tiktok,” said Schulze with reference to the AfD competitor Siegmund. He asks a correct question: Do citizens really want a tictoker as a prime minister?

Nevertheless, it will be difficult to keep the AfD away from power. Even if Schulze wins this choice. Because the “political center”, like elsewhere in eastern Germany, hardly gives any majorities. The former People’s Party SPD? A marginal phenomenon. Greens and FDP? Hardly noticeable. In the end, the BSW could help the right -wing extremist to the majority.

Schulze also has to get his own people under control. Nowhere in the CDU, the fire wall for the AfD is questioned as loudly as in Saxony-Anhalt. Would CDU MPs even choose Siegmund as Prime Minister in a secret election? Schulze must prevent this opening. Otherwise he will be the politician in the German history that initially initially initiated the end of the People’s Party CDU.

This is the historical dimension of this state election in small Saxony-Anhalt.

Reiner Haseloff left no doubt about his successor when he retreated. Schulze “has a very clear demarcation to the AfD,” said Haseloff. This is also why he chose him as the successor.

For Sven Schulze, the toughest months of his political life are now beginning. Maybe it will be years who knows. All of this is not a quake and certainly not a disaster. It is democracy.