The Political Ash Wednesday of the CSU was again a big show and every show has its leading and supporting roles, its stars and debutants. The main role? Belonged to party leader Markus Söder, logically, the jury gave its verdict immediately. “Emotional” and “powerful” (PNP), “Constant slapping for the Greens” (Picture), “euphoric hall” (FAZ). If you now take the euphoria of the hall as a benchmark to determine the best supporting role of the day, the winner would be quite clearly: Martin Huber.
Huber, 45, pretty much stumbled into the job as CSU general secretary. First the affair about his doctorate, which he now lets rest. Then his party speech in October, a disaster. Because it was Huber’s turn after Söder, he spoke in a half-empty hall in front of delegates, who rattled so loudly that the general’s speech drowned.
Also on Ash Wednesday in Passau, Huber’s appearance threatened to drift into embarrassment at first. For moderation, he walked through the rows of tables with his Deputy General Tanja Schorer-Dremel like Marianne and Michael at the Spring Festival of Folk Music. “This enthusiasm”, “mad mood”, “great”, Huber rejoiced, so Musikantenstadl-like that one was directly reminded of how fine the line is between the political high mass, which the CSU likes to conjure up, and a high mass of foreign shame.
But, foreign shame or not, on Ash Wednesday it is not the verdict of the media jury that decides, but the judges behind the beer mugs. The applausometer attested: Huber sufficiently fulfilled his role as cheerleader at his Ash Wednesday premiere. “What the other parties call their political Ash Wednesday would be at best a CSU district delegates’ meeting for us,” the general blasphemed on the stage.
Did his job as a whip at his Ash Wednesday premiere absolutely adequately: CSU General Secretary Martin Huber.
(Photo: Sven Hoppe/dpa)
That works, gender jokes anyway: “The speeches of the Greens today probably have more stars than the night sky.” Applause, cheers, mission accomplished. Well, the town band messed up the parade march, but otherwise the day was uneventful. The hitherto unlucky Huber, who was the chief choreographer in Passau, can count this as a success. Anyone who looked him in the face when the beer tables were later folded up saw a man so relaxed that he had never been seen before.
At least received polite applause from party friends in Passau: Minister of Construction and Transport Christian Bernreiter (CSU).
(Photo: Sven Hoppe/dpa)
Another debutant, Christian Bernreiter, 58, also had a supporting role in Passau. In the state election campaign, the transport minister is supposed to convert the Lower Bavarians, who have so far made their cross with Hubert Aiwanger or his free voters. This is the mission that CSU boss Söder has ordered, and Bernreiter has to be measured by it.
The minister announced “politics directly” instead of “politics correct” when he spoke after Huber and before Söder on Ash Wednesday. And with manuscript, which just didn’t come across as “direct” as with Aiwanger or earlier with Andreas Scheuer, whom Bernreiter is soon to formally inherit as leader of the Lower Bavaria CSU. Although, as is well known, Scheuer had to listen to whistles at his last Ash Wednesday appearance. With Bernreiter, the applause meter has at least crossed the polite threshold.