Russia, Corona, finance, economy: A wide range of topics is on the agenda for the deliberations of the 45 CSU MPs. How does the CSU align itself in opposition?
Against the background of the crisis between Russia and Ukraine, the CSU state group in the Bundestag is meeting for its traditional winter retreat this Wednesday (10 a.m.).
At the start of the two-day consultations in Berlin, CSU leader Markus Söder and North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) are expected to be joined by Spanish Conservative leader Pablo Casado and BMW CEO Oliver Zipse.
This Thursday, the new CDU leader Friedrich Merz, the chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Wolfgang Ischinger, Eon CEO Leonhard Birnbaum and former Ifo President Hans-Werner Sinn are guests. Together with Merz and Söder, CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt wants to inform the public. After the clashes between Söder and Merz’s predecessor, the failed Union chancellor candidate Armin Laschet, it is eagerly awaited how the two chairmen will present themselves together.
Blume: “From now on there is pure Union”
CSU General Secretary Markus Blume told the editorial network Germany with a view to Merz: “I see the spirit of a new togetherness everywhere. We will live it together with every fiber.» The Union is only strong if it pulls together in the same direction. As opposition parties, the CDU and CSU could now programmatically distinguish themselves more clearly. “From now on there is pure Union,” emphasized Blume.
The exam was supposed to take place at the beginning of January, but had to be postponed due to several corona diseases. With the meeting, the national group regularly takes stock and looks into the political year. Because of the pandemic, the conference will not be held in the Bavarian Seeon monastery for the second time in a row, but in Berlin.
It was expected that the deliberations of the 45 CSU MPs would focus on financial and economic policy, in addition to the situation on the Russian-Ukrainian border and the current discussion about the right time to relax the corona measures. The parliamentarians are likely to talk to former Ifo President Sinn about the high inflation rate and the low interest rate policy. With Zipse and Birnbaum, the topics of globalization, digitization and climate protection are likely to be on the agenda.
CSU criticizes migration plans
In a draft resolution presented to the “Münchner Merkur” and the dpa, the CSU state group attacks, among other things, the plans of the traffic light coalition in migration policy. “Migration without integration means more division and less solidarity,” Dobrindt told the newspaper. For example, the refugee status should already be decided at the EU’s external border. The paper states: “We clearly reject new incentives for irregular migration. We reject a so-called change of lane by mixing asylum and labor migration, as well as the extensive conversion of tolerance into residence permits planned by Links-Gelb.”
In the paragraph on policy towards Russia and support for Ukraine in the conflict, it says: “The previous offers by the federal government to send a hospital and 5,000 helmets are insufficient and cynical given the precarious situation of the Ukrainian people.” The traffic light does not do justice to the international responsibility of the Federal Republic and harms Germany’s reputation and role in the world.
With a view to the corona pandemic, Dobrindt called for decisions on opening prospects in the “Welt” of the federal and state governments in February. “It is a plea for more personal responsibility. Measures such as the obligation to wear masks are still needed. But we have to present a perspective of reducing the restrictions of daily life bit by bit – in trade, in gastronomy, in culture, sport, leisure, »said Dobrindt.
Source: Stern

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