Not much has been heard from the political protagonists in the Munich district these days. New Year’s receptions, if at all, only take place as virtual events, and there are hardly any invitations from parties to special occasions. The highly contagious omicron variant has too much of a grip on public life. The Munich-Land CSU district association, for example, has still not named a new date for the delegates’ meeting with a new board election, which was canceled at short notice in November. In any case, there is only one event on the website of the district CSU in the date column: the political Ash Wednesday on March 2nd – meaning the Bavarian-wide event in Passau.
Florian Hahn, member of the Bundestag and CSU district chairman from Putzbrunn, struggles with this situation: “Everything has been really difficult for two years,” he says when asked. “Due to Corona, we are still forced to rely on digital formats.” The respective working groups would regularly meet virtually, for example next week when the former CSU district boss Ernst Weidenbusch will report on the closed session of the state parliamentary group.
The outstanding assembly of delegates will be made up for as soon as the epidemic situation “reasonably” allows it, says Hahn, who, like his deputies Stefan Kern, Maximilian Böltl, Marianne Hellhuber and Betina Müsel, will remain in office until the next election according to the statutes – “not only provisionally”, as the Putzbrunner emphasizes.
His local policy goals for the new year are also closely related to the pandemic. On the one hand, it is about restoring the full ability to work of all bodies after Corona. “And we want to bring the work of our many successful mayors to the outside world and interact with the population.” Hahn hopes that the CSU summer party in 2022 can take place again. “And I still have so many honors to catch up on. It’s about time it all works again.”