Less than two months before the election in Bavaria, there is a serious dispute between the governing parties CSU and Freie Wahler: After the CSU’s open criticism of the campaign style of the Freie Wahler, their general secretary Susann Enders is now accusing the CSU of political omissions and mistakes. “The fact is: Since we have been free voters in the state government, we have also encountered legacy issues from the CSU years in agricultural and environmental policy,” Enders told the German Press Agency.
In Bavaria, the CSU has always been responsible for the Ministry of Agriculture and, for almost 50 years, for the Ministry of the Environment, said Enders. In the federal government, she also led the Ministry of Agriculture from 2005 to 2018 – “and what was left behind in many areas: a mountain of unsolved tasks”. This applies, for example, to issues such as groundwater protection or dealing with farmers.
CSU General Secretary Martin Huber had previously accused the free voters of an unclean style in the election campaign. He doesn’t understand when Free Voters boss Hubert Aiwanger criticizes the bureaucracy and supervision of water protection among farmers, for example, without mentioning that the Free Voters’ own environment minister, Thorsten Glauber, is responsible for these problems.
“We have to protect the groundwater from too much nitrate input. But we should take action on the polluters individually and not apply blanket conditions to all farmers in a region,” emphasized Enders. The key to this are nutrient balances for individual farms. “We’ve been committed to this from the start. That could have been done in Germany long ago.” Although the corresponding EU directive dates back to the 1990s, nothing happened. “The solutions that have been delayed for years are now taking revenge. Because now, under pressure from the EU, we have received a fertilizer regulation that is unsatisfactory for our farmers,” said Enders.
Instead of criticizing the Free Voters for naming the topic, CSU General Secretary Martin Huber should rather pass it on to the responsible Minister of Agriculture. Rather, it is true that Environment Minister Faithr met with farmers on site many times during the legislative period that was coming to an end and dealt with individual measuring points in detail. At the same time, the measuring network will be expanded to 1,500 measuring points. “This is working under high pressure and is being achieved. But it must be clear to everyone that new measuring points alone cannot meet the challenges. We expect a CSU Secretary General to face these facts. But perhaps he was simply too short to correctly assess the problem in office.”