This voice. You have to smoke a lot of cigarettes to sound like that at some point. The voice once belonged to a state secretary, a head of the state chancellery, and most recently the head of the CSU parliamentary group. Thomas Kreuzer was a member of the state parliament for almost three decades, and for the past twelve years he was one of the most powerful men in the CSU. But if you did a street poll and played your voice to people, how many would they recognize?
Kreuzer, 64, is what you would call a party soldier. Not well known to the public, feared in the political bubble. The Greens called it the “Battleship Cruiser,” and someone in his group once called it the “Wooden Hammer.” But he has never been someone “who primarily makes sure that he himself is in the newspaper,” says Kreuzer. On the inside he could be loud, some say choleric. Outward? Was he hyper-loyal. If the public finds out that “there are sparks flying between the parliamentary group leader and the Prime Minister, you will have extreme political damage,” says Kreuzer. That’s why the influence as CSU parliamentary group leader is “not so obvious to the outside world”.
When the election takes place on Sunday, Kreuzer’s political career will officially come to an end. In Kempten, his constituency, he was “pressured to run again” as a CSU direct candidate. But in his mid-sixties, after 29 years in state politics, it was simply “a good time to change,” says Kreuzer. There are different versions in the CSU telling how much they really harassed him in Kempten. One thing is certain: he will stop. What now remains is the question of how Kreuzer will be remembered.
The parliamentary group chairmanship is a key position in the CSU. If, as is to be expected, the party continues to lead the state government after the state elections, the parliamentary group will decide who to propose to the state parliament as prime minister – and can theoretically always withdraw their confidence in him. No prime minister can permanently rule over the faction, not even Markus Söder, who has made the CSU subservient, like only Franz Josef Strauss before him.
Most people remember Alois Glück or Gerold Tandler, and even Georg Schmid, the “Schüttelschorsch”, who is remembered more for his tendency to violently shake hands and his involvement in the so-called relatives affair. But not everyone interpreted their task in the same way. In the CSU there were faction leaders who saw themselves primarily as getting a majority for the Prime Minister. And those who challenged the Prime Minister, with their own ideas, beliefs, luck was one of those. Cruisers, not so much.
As a parliamentary group leader, the growler from Kempten has experienced two prime ministers. First Horst Seehofer, then Markus Söder. In the extremely conservative cruiser, Seehofer had a loyal comrade-in-arms for a tough course in asylum policy. Only sporadically did Kreuzer deviate from his motto that internal conflicts should remain internal. There were, for example, the plans for a third runway at Munich Airport. Seehofer wanted to calm the people’s anger, his parliamentary group leader intervened, that was in 2016. The protest will be over once the excavators are rolling, said Kreuzer.
Some CSU MPs would have wanted Kreuzer to intervene in the middle, even under Söder. Not everyone agreed with Söder’s tough Corona course and his temporary green phase. And quite a few found that the parliamentary group leader did not convey their critical stance to the Prime Minister in an offensive enough manner. The state parliamentary group used to be considered the “heart chamber” of the CSU. Under Kreuzer, the impression sometimes arose that their rhythm was being dictated more and more by Söder with each passing day.
Kreuzer sees it differently. “A good parliamentary group leader doesn’t say yes and amen to everything,” which the Prime Minister wants. “I never simply swallowed things that were crucially important to me.” But hardly anyone noticed, precisely because he never brought the conflicts to the outside world. Kreuzer admits that Corona was “the most difficult time” of his career. Restaurants close, shops close, “that was very stressful.” However, in a faction there is “always someone who doesn’t feel that their own interests are taken into account and is more likely to criticize.”
Kreuzer is now leaving state politics behind and he wants to remain a city councilor in Kempten. And “pursue my hobbies a little more again,” golfing and hunting. As far as his successor as parliamentary group leader is concerned, there are currently some signs pointing to Klaus Holetschek. As Minister of Health, he managed to make a name for himself alongside the all-powerful Söder. It is said that this would be good for the group.