CDU/CSU: Söder: There should be more focus on changes in direction

In view of the stagnating poll numbers, CSU boss Markus Söder advocates that the change in direction in Germany that is possible with the Union should be emphasized more strongly in the election campaign. “Do you really believe that you want to change something, or will you just get a change of office,” said the Bavarian Prime Minister at the presentation of the biography “Friedrich Merz. His path to power” by the head of the domestic policy department of the monthly magazine “Cicero”, Volker Resing, in Berlin.

It will be important in the next few weeks to make it credibly clear to the population that there will actually be a change of direction with the Union, said Söder. “Then there will be another jump,” he said when asked what recommendation he would give to Merz so that approval would increase. The Union has been stagnating in the polls at a good 30 percent for months.

This also applies to the issue of migration, said Söder. In the next few weeks it will not be important to make “a nice point of sympathy,” he added. Rather, credibility must be emphasized even more strongly in connection with a tougher migration policy, “by us together”. This is particularly true against the background of the bitter dispute between the then CDU Chancellor Angela Merkel and the CSU over migration policy in 2015 and afterwards. Merz was not there at the time. This is now “the credibility point for Merz,” said Söder.

Why is Merz the better chancellor?

Söder praised Merz as the right chancellor in view of the economic and international challenges, especially given the inauguration of US President Donald Trump on Monday. Merz has a much broader network and international experience. He supports Merz “with full conviction.” He has personal respect for Merz – which is why his own ego can also cope with the decision to hand over the candidacy for chancellor to him.

What he has always appreciated about Merz is that “he is not a politician who likes to make the classic taunts” and who sticks things out at the back, “i.e. all these gimmicks,” said Söder. Unlike before, he also has the impression “that you can talk to him about things in a completely different way.” In the power struggle over the 2021 candidacy for chancellor, Söder was accused of having seriously damaged the then CDU leader Armin Laschet with taunts. The Union was out of the Chancellery after 16 years of Merkel’s government.

The biggest difference between Söder and Merz?

When asked about the main differences between him and Merz, Söder answered humorously: “Firstly, I have a better high school diploma. And secondly, I was more of a Beatles fan than the Stones.” Thirdly, Bayern is significantly more successful in football than Dortmund. There is also a difference between Merz from Sauerland and him as a Bavarian – he “perhaps has a bit more of a Bavarian temperament in some places”. Söder emphasized that he was getting along quite well with Merz’s clear political positions. “Friedrich Merz is edgy, yes. But you know what you have.”

Which positions does the CSU want to secure?

When asked which positions the CSU would like to secure in a future government, Söder was tight-lipped. “There will definitely be some for us. It will definitely go well” – but that depends on the election results. “Are there coalition partners? Maybe you can do it alone” or with whom you have to form a coalition, the CSU leader said.

There are no special commitments for a specific office – for example, not for “any office in a castle. We’re not interested in that,” Söder added afterwards. In recent months there has been speculation as to whether Söder might be interested in becoming Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s successor.

Merz a man of the 1980s?

When asked whether Merz was a man of the 1980s, Söder replied “out of deep conviction: Friedrich Merz is in time.” But Merz also brings experiences from another time. “That helps,” said the CSU leader and added: “Old white men – even with beards because of me – they can help the country more than some others.”

Author Resing praises Merz’s expertise “outside the Berlin bubble”

Author Resing highlighted Merz’s international economic expertise. There has never been a time in German politics “where someone was completely somewhere else for ten years, got to know a completely different world in which they were not in Germany for a third of the time,” he said, referring to Merz’s time at the investment company Blackrock. Resing added: “This internationality and this expertise outside of the Berlin bubble is something special. We will then see whether it pays off.”