There isn’t one single moment to pinpoint exactly when the descent began. But on the evening of September 24, 2017, there is just such a moment when, at 6 p.m. sharp, the first bars appear on the screens on the fourth floor of the district office and the first projection of the federal elections makes it clear: this is a turning point. The Union loses almost nine percent that evening, the Social Democrats more than five – and the faces of the top personnel present around the member of the Bundestag Florian Hahn, the member of the state parliament Kerstin Schreyer and the SPD direct candidate Bela Bach freeze.
It has been a gradual descent of the CSU in the district for years, with the SPD almost a free fall. On the other hand, there was a rise in top personnel from the district of Munich to important offices, at all levels, in all colors: the promotion of Kerstin Schreyer from Unterhaching to Bavarian Minister for Family Affairs in 2018 and later to head of the department for housing, construction and transport; the entry of Putzbrunner Florian Hahn into the innermost party circle around Prime Minister Markus Söder as Deputy General Secretary. The Neubiberg member of the state parliament Natascha Kohnen made it from the general secretary of the Bavarian SPD to the state head, Bela Bach from Planegg moved into the Bundestag as a successor in the last legislature. And then there is Anton Hofreiter from Unterhaching, who, as a strong man, headed the Greens parliamentary group in the Bundestag for eight years. Hardly any district could boast of such an abundance of power, so much influence and creative power in the hands of a few members of the state and federal parliaments.
But not much of that is left. What’s going on there?
In the SPD it is more difficult to become a member of parliament than to be
Politics can be cruel, and so can a prime minister. It’s no secret that Söder has a certain ruthlessness; but having sacrificed Schreyer in the recent cabinet reshuffle caused shaking of heads and incomprehension, not only among the Christian Socialists in the district. Schreyer was considered loyal, but even more: competent and assertive. Hahn was also a victim of the reorganization of the Söder government, which is not without a certain irony. Because while his previous boss, Secretary General Markus Blume, was promoted to Minister of State for Science and Art, Hahn had to give up his post as Deputy Secretary General – and was instead promoted to the rank of “international secretary”, which sounds more important than it actually is.
But it is not only the loss of importance within the party that is difficult. With the combination of office and mandate, Schreyer and Hahn have always had the opportunity to have a direct influence – and to drive projects in the district. On the A 8, for example, after decades of fighting, it was finally possible to introduce speed limits and thus ensure more noise protection for the suffering residents in Unterhaching and Neubiberg – under Minister Schreyer, who played a key role in this. The loss of influence for MP Hahn, who has repeatedly boasted that he has diverted subsidies to the district of Munich – also weighs heavily – funding for aerospace projects in Ottobrunn, for research into corona drugs in Martinsried or smaller sums for urban development, a playground, a youth center. But now, as a parliamentarian in the opposition, there is no direct line to departments that were once run by the Union, such as the Federal Ministry of Science or Economics. Hahn is cut off, important contacts are broken.
Natascha Kohnen, the face of the SPD in the district, is leaving politics.
(Photo: Sebastian Gabriel)
The influence of the district in the state and in the federal government has never been greater than in recent years – but that’s over for the time being. And the prospects that this could change again quickly are currently slim. In Natascha Kohnen, the face of the district SPD will leave politics in the coming year, the former head of the state association, who was also a member of the federal executive board of the SPD. The comrades are out of this circle of power; whether they make it back into the state parliament will also depend on their own clout within the state association when it comes to the distribution of list places. Before the last elections, it was always shown that the inner-party influence of the district SPD was usually too small. Except for Kohnen.
The fact that Bela Bach’s promise for the future has not been kept could also become a problem for the comrades in the long run. For almost two years, the former hopeful was a member of the Bundestag as a successor – then followed the allocation of list places before the 2021 election, Bach’s non-consideration in a promising place and her withdrawal from the candidacy and from federal politics. And Bach’s example himself shows how difficult it is to position an applicant in a promising position in the long term, in the party and in public. Among the comrades, becoming an MP is more tiring than being.
Off: Anton Hofreiter (right) wanted to become a minister. But Robert Habeck and Annalena Baerbock also denied him that.
(Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa)
But it’s not just the Social Democrats who are suffering. The dream of the Greens in the district of increasing their importance and gaining weight has also burst. And the disappointment was correspondingly great when it became known that Anton Hofreiter from Unterhaching would not get an office in the new federal government. He should have been Minister of Transport – also for the benefit of the district. Now Hofreiter is a simple member of parliament – and a father. His son was born at the beginning of the year and Hofreiter took a break until Easter. Difficult to imagine as a minister.