At the moment there is really a lot going on. People do things that one would never have expected of them or find similarities that seemed unthinkable. Markus Söder speaks of his own free will of “clearly politically motivated violent crime from the right” on the fifth anniversary of the attack on the Olympia shopping center in Munich. Something like that has so far been reserved for left-wing terrorists or Islamists, everything else was confused individual perpetrators. It is possible that the state government will soon move away from the single perpetrator thesis in the bomb attack on the Oktoberfest. There is also an anniversary in two months’ time. But it’s only the 41st
Or the on-site meeting in the flooded area: The near-chancellor candidate Söder (CSU) attends it together with the chancellor candidate Scholz (SPD), in the middle of the election campaign, and the two give each other almost amorous looks. In any case, it looks very, very different when Söder looks at his Vice and Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger, who refuses to be vaccinated.
“Mei Liaba!” Says the Bavarian, and that is anything but a declaration of love. Aiwanger is to Söder what Andi Scheuer is to Merkel: a somewhat strange addition under suspicion of zero numbers, which you may not have earned, but which you have to accept approvingly if you want to continue to govern. After all, both Scheuer and Aiwanger are very good waddling men.
Olaf Scholz is said to have the nickname “Merkel” at the SPD headquarters in Berlin, which could explain why Söder is so good with him. The Bavarian Prime Minister actually sees himself as a natural successor to the Chancellor, hence his new preference for science-based and reasoned statements. That was not always so.
Söder was once CSU general secretary when they didn’t use intellectual actors like Markus Blume for it, but real thugs. Today, however, Söder says to himself: “Armin is to me what Edmund was to Angela – just a marginal note on the way to the Chancellery.”
At the moment, like Merkel, he is working on the image as a climber, and let’s be honest: A “Söderraute” would suit a Bavarian much better than the Chancellor.