Hendrik Wüst and Markus Söder: Rivals on cuddly course

The reception is expectant. On the back wall it is called “Servus”, on the chairs there are angular density with white and blue diamonds, and the musicians of the Isselburg wind orchestra carry leather pants. To move into the political prominence, they are now playing the Bavarian defilier march.

Hendrik Wüst and Markus Söder greet the crowd, dozens of cell phone cameras film the duo. Ten days before the local elections, the CDU commits North Rhine-Westphalia in a warehouse in the industrial area of ​​Bocholt a climax of its election campaign. And the CSU boss is the guest of honor.

Wait a minute, Markus Söder and North Rhine-Westphalia-wasn’t that?

Four years after Söder Armin Laschet dismantled as a candidate for chancellor, Prime Minister and CDU state chief Hendrik Wüst invited the CSU colleagues to his home constituency. What did he think? Apparently Wüst is currently in cuddly. The election campaign does it. It was only at the beginning of the week that the Prime Minister received the Federal Chancellor for an extremely harmonious visit to Düsseldorf, that is, the Friedrich Merz, which he once brought to the palm so that he almost threw the CDU chair. But of course Markus Söder is even a number harder.

In any case, Hendrik Wüst does not have the local press behind. Söder was the man who “left burned Earth” with the sabotage of Laschet’s election campaign in North Rhine-Westphalia, wrote the “Bocholt-Borkener Volksblatt” in advance. The CSU man does not stand for common ground, but for “Bavaria over everything”, for a “white-blue ego show”. He was not a sympathy, but “a splitter”.

So there is a certain voltage. In the invitation of the CDU press office there was a ambiguous sentence: “Due to the participation of the Bavarian Prime Minister, increased security measures apply.“And a unity of disaster protection from the Red Cross over the parking lot of the event hall Kurvt this afternoon.

But of course you experience the big harmony inside this Thursday afternoon. “What is better than a Prime Minister?” Asks Hendrik Wüst. “Two prime ministers.” He recalls that he had already performed in the election campaign in Bavaria. This gave rise to the idea for the counter -invitation. The area around Bocholt has full employment, quasi Bavarian conditions. Bavaria is home and high-tech, North Rhine-Westphalia are changing from the coal to the AI. Markus Söder listen to people and get their concerns in a nutshell. All of this leads to the Eloge: “Dear Markus, that you are as you are, is good and a great strength of the CSU.”

Söder (58) and Wüst (50) have known each other in the Junge Union together. Between 2000 and 2003 both were at the head of their respective national associations. Söder has chosen power -conscious and politically extremely agile. Wüst moved from a tight conservative to far into the middle, likes to be a modern conservative, albeit sometimes a bit artificial. When a little boy walked around in front of his lectern, says Wüst: “Nice that he is there. We’re doing politics for the future.”

The last Bavarian Prime Minister in Bocholt was Franz Josef Strauß in 1953. If you consider that Strauss never brought it to the chancellery, Söder is definitely in the continuity of his idol in this regard. Of course, Söder is not the first time since the creation of 2021 in North Rhine -Westphalia. Already in the year he ventured to Olpe to support the state election competitor Wüst. And in January 2025 he visited Friedrich Merz for the white sausage breakfast in the Sauerland.

Maybe Söder has imposed himself with a kind of confrontation therapy, so it always consciously exposes itself to what makes it the most. He had to leave the Chancellor candidacy Armin Laschet, he had to leave the Chancellery Friedrich Merz. And next comes Hendrik Wüst?

Söder thanks for the invitation and for the praising words. “They were all right”. There are longer prime ministers in Germany, “but no larger ones”. As him and fuss. And as the most economical countries, Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia kept together. “If you’re fine, Bayern is fine, then Germany is also doing well.” And so forth.

Söder praises his local politics and reports that he had campaigned for the municipalities to be available in the federal government. He talks about the economic situation and that he is not ready to “simply accept Germany’s relegation”. He says the suspects in the crime scene should not always be the entrepreneurs, performance must be worthwhile. And of course he constantly draws comparisons with football. A joke here about Olaf Scholz and the eye flap as the highlight of his chancellorship, a jot about hazel mice and her love life, the planning process in road construction should not be in the way.

For Söder’s conditions, it is a serious speech. Putin, compulsory military service, Christian holidays. You can tell that he is no longer opposition in the federal government and that he was lost to the Greens of favorite opponents. Now he ironicizes himself more often. It is always said that the Söder has enforced so much in the coalition, says Söder. “That’s correct.” Mothers’ pension and other billion dollars. “But,” says Söder, “I do it for you too.” People think it’s funny. That counts. “God protects Bavaria and NRW,” he says in the end.

So everything is fine between the NRW CDU and the Söder-CSU. After September 14th we continue as before. For years, Wüst and Söder have artificially dubbed their obvious rivalry. As prime minister, the two compete for the German Olympic application, Söder is committed to Munich, Wüst for the Ruhr area. The CSU boss Söder hates the Greens, the CDU man Wüst rules with them. Bavaria pays in the country financial equalization, North Rhine-Westphalia gets money. Wüst’s school minister wants to change the calendar of the summer fees to the trouble of Bavaria (“No Chance”, says Söder in Bocholt and receives a few boo calls). Bratwurst friend Söder recently admitted that he envies the figure around his figure. He could “eat endlessly and always stays slim”.

Jens Spahn holds the closing word. He is the CDU district chairman here. During the entrance to the site, he was able to see a large logistics camp from Fiege on the other side of the street, which made the headlines with the former Minister of Health Spahn because of expensive mask business. But of course that doesn’t matter today. Spahn wears a janker. “Hendrik Wüst and Markus Söder,” says Spahn. “Here, what belongs together.” Well then.