For example the cow. “With us there is not a single cow far and wide,” says a CSU MP from Franconia. He means the election poster that could be seen all over Bavaria. A perfectly normal CSU poster would have been a direct candidate or the party leader – and not a cow that holds its mouth so close to the camera that you almost get scared that it might tumble out of the poster. “Under all cannon,” says another member of the CSU state parliamentary group about the cow poster. In the city, the CSU campaigners would have wondered how exactly this should address the voters. And in the country? That was “felt to be rubbish”.
You hear something like that now more often in the CSU. Now that the general election is over and the party is analyzing its miserable result in Bavaria (31.7 percent). This Wednesday the analysis goes into the next round. After the party and district boards, the CSU parliamentary group discussed the causes of the election gossip. There is one particular focus: Markus Blume, CSU General Secretary and, in this role, the chief organizer of the election campaign.
The beginning of the flower criticism made the Bundestag member and former CSU Federal Minister Peter Ramsauer on Monday. During the election campaign, party leader Söder had to “lick up” what General Blume “spat” at him, Raumsauer told him mirrors. He referred to an interview in which Blume had said about the chancellor chances of the CDU / CSU: “Of course we would be better off with Markus Söder.” The sentence fell shortly before the party conference in Nuremberg, where the CSU received its candidate for chancellor, CDU leader Armin Laschet. Ramsauer doubts that Blume’s sentence “was particularly useful”. He is not alone in the party. The now-elected Munich CSU direct candidate Michael Kuffer said, for example, “that people will certainly not vote for Laschet if they have the feeling that we are not even behind our own candidate”.
The criticism continues on Wednesday. On the sidelines of the parliamentary group meeting and during it, individual MPs express dissatisfaction with Blume – and envious of the SPD posters. As participants of the meeting report, Söder also speaks about Blume’s role in the election campaign. Not every interview was successful, he is supposed to have said – addressed to Blume. He then apologized to the parliamentary group. True, says Blume after the meeting, he apologized for the fact that a poster came too late or that not everyone liked the motif. But: “The real causes lay elsewhere.”
In fact, it would be misleading to claim that the CSU parliamentary group only works on the Secretary General. The majority of MPs also see the weak Laschet as the main culprit for the poor election result – and CDU puller Wolfgang Schäuble, who pushed Laschet through as a candidate. With a view to Schäuble, CSU Agriculture Minister Michaela Kaniber is quoted as saying: “Old, gray men are dangerous because they no longer have a political future.” Some also see the results of the CSU federal ministers in the parliamentary group as the cause of the election result. The mask affair, which has harmed, is also discussed. Söder counters the criticism that his strict Corona course could have frightened some voters: There was no alternative.
CSU MPs complain about the lack of topics of their own
And yet, the criticism of Blume can also be heard beyond the state parliament. The campaign was “not well organized,” says a CSU direct candidate behind closed doors. The fact that the party won 45 of 46 mandates in the end is mainly thanks to the candidates themselves. Some are also unhappy with the slogan “stability instead of slipping to the left”. On the one hand, a good claim that got votes in the last few meters, says a CSU MP. On the other hand, this “negative campaigning” shows that the CSU lacked its own issues.
“The campaign was effective in the crucial phase,” says Blume, on the other hand, about the left-slide slogan. “That was mine, that was our idea.” In addition, the CSU party conference and the Laschet reception at Nockherberg were “great events” that ultimately turned the trend around. That is the argumentation of the CSU top: That it is thanks to the election campaign maneuvers from Bavaria that the Union has done better in the last few meters than forecast in the surveys.
Meanwhile, it can be heard about Söder that he is “overall satisfied” with his Secretary General. The cooperation works, there is a great relationship of trust. Söder and Blume, their fate is connected by now at the latest. Should the state election in 2023 turn out similarly, the CSU state parliamentary group should no longer react so graciously.