The resignation of Secretary General Stephan Mayer reveals a deep-seated problem in the CSU. Party leader Markus Söder wanted to re-establish the CSU as a traditional conservative home party after unsuccessful attempts to redeclare it as a modern big city or environmental party. But the values that the CSU would like to stand for can no longer be credibly represented.
It is vital for the party that its voters continue to hold it responsible for the top positions in the Free State in many areas, but also for attitude to life and tradition. Not least because of the loss of importance in the federal government, the CSU has to celebrate its successes in Bavaria alone, Prime Minister Söder very consciously dings from folk festival to folk festival. The CSU has recognized the 2023 state election as an election of fate. If the approval continues to fall and if you even need a third coalition partner, it will be over with the nimbus and probably also with Söder’s career.
This should also prevent a new staff tableau, just a few weeks ago Söder presented the new cabinet and his new Secretary General. Now one might think that an illegitimate child in the 21st century, even in the pilgrimage town of Altötting, would no longer cause too much excitement, and Mayer is also single. But it’s – once again – bigotry that makes it so.
Söder presented his new general secretary as “conservative, catholic”, as someone who should convince voters in rural areas of the CSU again. And then – if it’s true (which is at least rumored) – such a conservative Catholic model politician denies his own son and threatens the journalist who finds out with “annihilation”. Such a failure, even if it is partly caused by health problems, is unacceptable.
Mask affairs, corruption: the CSU repeatedly sets standards that are not met by its own people
Horst Seehofer was also initially not elected CSU leader because of an illegitimate child. Even then, the minor scandal was that he had one, but the big one was that he kept it a secret and instead propagated the Christian-social family image.
The problem is not personal shortcomings, which should be granted to politicians just like everyone else. But the CSU has a special knack for setting standards that are not met by its own people.
Investigations against the former Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer have just become known, who is not only responsible for the billion-euro toll debacle, but is also said to have given false testimony to the Bundestag investigative committee. In the Bavarian state parliament, the investigative committee is running into the mask affairs, which reveal a greed on the part of politicians, the dimensions of which are stunning. Millions are said to have been earned from the Corona crisis.
Söder has not managed to credibly distinguish himself from the “old CSU”, from the amigos of the past. He introduced strict compliance rules and demanded absolute transparency from his politicians. But there have been too many scandals under his leadership, too few far-sighted people determine the course. In its current state, the party looks more like a worn-out version of its former dominance. Dog sans scho, they used to say. If they are no longer, the CSU no longer deserves this praise of slyness.