Pink is the color of summer. Well, at least on this Sunday, in the ballroom at Nockherberg. Ulrike Scharf wears a dress that is just as bright pink as the new logo of the Frauen-Union Bayern, of which she has been the boss for almost three years. And she will remain her boss, that is certain at 12:54 p.m. Then Scharf puts both hands on her chest, smiles, gets up, turns around, waves to the roaring hall. 96.1 percent, with this result the delegates have just confirmed their frontwoman. But now there are flowers, red flowers, pink flowers, and of course: pink flowers.
Anyone who thinks that such superficial things don’t matter should be told that Scharf himself draws attention to “our new color”. She finds the pink “fresh”. Fresh? Blue for boys, pink for girls, that’s how it was when the Frauen-Union Bayern (FU), the women’s organization of the CSU, was founded. And that’s how it should be in the CSU today, 75 years later, because “we in the CSU know that women are women” and “not people with a uterus,” says Wolfgang Stefinger, who, as a member of the Bundestag in Munich, is allowed to say a word of welcome. Quasi as a quota man in a hall full of women.
75 years FU. Actually, that should be celebrated. But is there really a reason for this, apart from this bare number: 75? There are also figures that the women in the CSU don’t like at all, especially these ones: Half of the people in Bavaria are female, in the CSU it’s only 22 percent. “We have made good progress,” says the old and new FU boss, Scharf. But she also says “that it’s not enough”.
Ilse Aigner, the president of the state parliament and “at the moment the only chairwoman of a CSU district association”, specifically in Upper Bavaria, addresses what frustrates the approximately 240 delegates in the hall. In the history of the party, there were only two women in the long line of powerful regional leaders in the CSU state, as Aigner emphasized in her greeting. “Ladies, that has to change!” she calls out to the audience. Aigner also sees “room for improvement” in the state parliament, where the proportion of women in the CSU parliamentary group at the beginning of the legislative period was 21.2 percent. It doesn’t look much better in the Bundestag, the rate in the state group of Christian Socialists is 22 percent.
The women in the CSU, which is still a male party, want more visibility. Maybe that’s why this color, bright pink. And that’s why this front woman, Ulrike Scharf? “A lucky cast”, thinks Aigner, “you also dare to say something”. Recently, Scharf said a sentence that she has said before: “Bavaria is ripe for a prime minister.” For those who didn’t get it: The current prime minister is a CSU member, his name is Markus Söder and he is the boss of Scharf, who recently returned to the cabinet as social affairs minister. You really have to have the courage to count your own boss.
count? Of course, Scharf doesn’t want her sentence to be understood that way, she made it clear shortly before the FU state assembly at Nockherberg. Better safe than sorry, Söder is invited as a speaker. Yes, “a woman can also be at the top in Bavaria,” she said Augsburg General. But, no, “now it’s still too early”, with Söder there is a “Prime Minister who always supports the women in the CSU and the Women’s Union.” A clarification that does not prevent Ulrike Scharf from trying out the seat in the first row that is reserved for Söder. Before the CSU boss arrives at Nockherberg, Scharf slides over to his chair so that he can have a better chat with Ilse Aigner.
Anyone who looks at Scharf, 54, on Sunday sees a woman who is surrounded like a pop star. Kisses, hugs, selfies. After her comeback as a minister, Scharf is good as role model for all women in the CSU who don’t let the men in their party get them down. As Minister of the Environment, her first episode in the cabinet, she had shown an edge for nature conservation, even against currents in the CSU parliamentary group. Some found it too rebellious, above all parliamentary group leader Thomas Kreuzer, who is said to have urged the then new Prime Minister Söder in spring 2018 to dismiss Scharf as a minister. Instead of sulking, she re-profiled herself as a representative of CSU women. Söder was impressed, which is one of the reasons he brought her back. The greeting speakers at the Nockherberg also pay homage to Scharf’s “stamina”.
But what did Scharf really achieve for the CSU women? Still not enough, she says herself. She will continue to fight, “with all her strength, with all her conviction,” promises Scharf to the delegates. Her major goal remains the mandatory quota for women, which failed at the 2019 party conference, partly due to the resistance of young CSU women. In the meantime, Scharf has announced that it will start a new attempt to finally enforce the quota. When? She leaves that open. Such a project must be well prepared, says Scharf.
On Sunday afternoon, Söder marches into the ballroom. The CSU leader is ahead of his party when it comes to promoting women. Until recently, the CSU team in his cabinet had equal representation. On the FU stage he refers to “more femininity” also in the CSU party headquarters, which previously was more of a “boys clubWhat Söder thinks: With Tanja Schorer-Dremel, a woman is now the deputy of the CSU Secretary General, who has recently been called Martin Huber. However, not all CSUs found that Söder had described Schorer-Dremel as the “mother of the company”. -Women flattering And something else is almost ironic: that Söder’s recent cabinet reshuffle promoted FU boss Scharf, but brought the gender ratio back out of balance overall – in favor of the CSU men.
With him as party leader, the women’s union “certainly has the strongest supporter among men” in the CSU, says Markus Söder at the end of his speech. The applause of the women in the ballroom is friendly.