Markus Söder with Caren Miosga: “Without me there is no government”

Markus Söder knows what is expected of him. And he likes to deliver. In the shortened election campaign until February 23, 2025, it is important to seize every moment and position yourself for the voters. The politician never tired of emphasizing why Friedrich Merz is the best candidate for the job as Chancellor and what the outgoing government has failed to do in the last three and a half years.

Söder’s motto for the evening was “After the traffic lights go out: How much standstill can Germany afford?” so quickly on the parquet. The answer for him is clear: now people are spitting on their hands again. And maybe add a little something to the other parties’ soup.

Guest at “Caren Miosga” were:

Lars Klingbeil initially honestly struggled with the question of whether Olaf Scholz would even be the SPD’s candidate for chancellor in the coming election campaign, and if so, whether that was the right decision. While Klingbeil never tired of emphasizing that there were debates, the SPD wanted to “go into the election campaign with Olaf Scholz” and that he was “loyally” behind the Chancellor, Kerstin Münstermann raised slight doubts. Because Boris Pistorius has not yet clearly spoken out against running for office and, compared to Scholz, who the journalist attested to, he could not “communicate empathetically”, he would definitely score points in this area.

Pistorius is a “projection surface” because people are so dissatisfied with the Chancellor’s work. “Believe in a comeback,” Klingbeil replied. According to the party chairman, the SPD could definitely win with Olaf Scholz. But he doesn’t want to announce more details until after November 30th; pushing for an earlier confession wouldn’t help.

Markus Söder thought it was “great how faithful and loyal” Klingbeil was to the Chancellor, but Friedrich Merz would have a clearer claim to leadership, regardless of who he governs with. At the same time, Söder in particular had already excluded some coalition partners from the outset. In his opinion, a government under the CDU/CSU could not be formed with the AfD, the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance, the FDP or the Greens. All that remains is the SPD and another GroKo. “The GroKo wasn’t that bad,” said Söder, ignoring the fact that this 16-year government too often blocked itself. So he did exactly what the Bavarian Prime Minister is now accusing the traffic light government of.

The traffic light had “wrong strategies”, it “could have done so much” and implemented little. In Söder’s opinion, it was mainly the Greens who had not “demonstrated the ability to govern”. That’s why his solution, without wanting to commit himself directly, is definitely an indication that not everything was bad under the GroKo. After all, in a new edition of the well-known soup, other people would rule, so it would no longer be the GroKo from 2013-2018 or the one from 2018-2021.

Lars Klingbeil immediately rejected this initiative, saying he had learned from the past and would not hold any coalition talks until the election had been decided. Especially in light of the fact that Markus Söder is ruling out a government with the Greens, but Chancellor candidate Merz is much more open about it. “Without me there is no government,” said Markus Söder in the best Sun King manner. After all, as party leader of the CSU, he also has a say in who ultimately governs with whom.

Söder has a similarly decisive opinion when it comes to future connections between Germany and the USA. Because purely from a feeling, he sees his candidate for chancellor as having a clear advantage when it comes to negotiations with Donald Trump and his future cabinet. Personally, he would have “a better feeling if Friedrich Merz would take over.”

Feelings just don’t get you very far in politics. We had to learn that these days when the CDU man Gundolf Siebeke commented on . He also campaigned for anti-emotional democracy lessons. If his own sister party speaks out so much against feelings in the election campaign, Markus Söder should perhaps hold back more on expressing feelings in the future.

While Lars Klingbeil reflected on the current situation in this “Caren Miosga” program in a more thoughtful manner and looked at his own mistakes, Markus Söder was already in election campaign mode. The fact that GroKo seems to be the only possible option for him shouldn’t make the next few months any easier. Of course, the politicians are no longer the same as they were four years ago, but many citizens are likely to be as skeptical about the grand coalition as they would be about a traffic light government.