Martin Huber is the new CSU general secretary. Party leader Markus Söder announced this on Friday morning in Munich. Before that, the CSU board had unanimously approved Söder’s election in a video link. The member of parliament Huber, 44, succeeds the resigned Stephan Mayer, who was in office for less than three months. “He’s burning, he wants it, he’s ready to shoulder this task,” said Söder about Huber. He is modern and conservative, value-conscious and cosmopolitan at the same time, “just a smart guy”. The new CSU general himself called his election “a great honor”.
The parliamentary group is the Prime Minister’s power base, but Söder’s relationship with MPs has seen better days. A signal of peace through the appointment of a general secretary from among them – that makes sense for Söder in view of the difficult state election campaign in 2023, which Huber will now organize. The deputies had also made it clear internally that they would not appreciate any other decision.
According to reports, the CSU state group in the Bundestag was already prepared for the fact that Stephan Mayer would not be a member of parliament this time. It is good that the new general secretary comes from the parliamentary group and is “part of this election campaign himself” instead of “just planning for others”, said Söder. In February, when he presented Mayer’s personal details, it sounded different.
Martin Huber is spokesman for the CSU’s environment working group – he was already dealing with green issues before Söder had revealed his passion for it. “We have to make it clear again that the environment and ecology are core issues for our party,” Huber said in a 2018 statement SZ-Interview. Huber is currently writing – together with his parliamentary colleague Gerhard Hopp – on the new basic program of the CSU. Party friends praise that he is “analytically in a good mood”. Söder has also publicly identified him as a talent: the authors of the basic program are “smart young people”.
The fact that he is very familiar with the inner workings of the CSU state leadership also spoke for Huber. From 2008 to 2013 he was the personal advisor to party leaders Erwin Huber and Horst Seehofer. The proximity to Seehofer was until the end a factor that could keep Söder from Huber’s appointment; on the other hand, the connection between Huber and Seehofer should no longer be too close, despite mutual respect. In 2013, Huber himself entered the state parliament in the Altötting constituency – many locals remember the enormously complex election campaign with which list candidate Huber drew attention to himself. In 2018 he then conquered the direct mandate, comparatively confidently with 42 percent of the votes.
Personal electoral success was one of the criteria that Söder and others wanted to apply when looking for a new Secretary General. Huber also comes from the countryside, even from Upper Bavaria, which should have been helpful: On Thursday, Ilse Aigner, head of the powerful CSU district association in Upper Bavaria, demanded in an interview that Mayer’s successor had to “represent the rural area”.
In his constituency, Huber is seen as someone who maintains contact with clubs and associations in the traditional CSU manner and – even as a supporter of FC Bayern – also drops by the 1860 fan club on Saturday evenings. Huber, says someone from the CSU who knows him well, combines “intellectual stature and down-to-earthness, the best of both worlds.” Another CSU man says “the only thing he might still be missing is talk show experience”.
That’s also the one big question mark that pops up in talks with CSU representatives on Friday: Does Huber have the toughness to compete for his new job? Compared to Huber, one says, even his predecessor Markus Blume was a “ruffian” – and some even suspected that Blume was far too nice for the attack department. Is there a completely new profile for the position of CSU general secretary – popular figure instead of calf biter? Well, it doesn’t hurt “if he can also fight and sometimes bite,” says Söder on Friday about his general image.
However, even people outside the CSU who know Huber from the Altötting district paint the picture of a reserved and relaxed person who stands out with his willingness to help. “Decent,” says one. For example, Huber is said to have taken care of a young person who lost his father in an accident. A few years ago he campaigned strongly for a Pakistani refugee threatened with deportation to be allowed to stay in Germany. Huber’s religiosity is also often mentioned by companions: for example, he always crosses himself before eating, saying it’s not a show for him.
On Friday, Markus Söder also seemed like a man who makes three crosses that at the end of this week, which he himself calls “not an easy week”, he can present a successor that draws attention away from the scandal headlines that the Mayer produced resignation. “We’re looking ahead,” said Söder.