In the Bavarian election campaign, state political issues were often left behind. The CSU and Free Voters drummed against the traffic lights, especially against the Greens. But there were also real upsets.
The CSU has launched a new internet campaign for the final days of the Bavarian state election campaign: In the photo on the left, the Bavarian idyll shines in bright colors, the photo on the right shows dreariness in black and white. And then it says: “YES to Bavaria – NO to the traffic lights.” It is a motto that symbolizes large parts of the Bavarian government parties’ state election campaign.
Both the CSU and the Free Voters were already running an anti-traffic light election campaign before the election campaign had really begun. Although the criticism was based on Bavarian interests, real state political issues have often fallen by the wayside in the past few weeks – also because the opposition was unable to get their ideas through. And for the CSU, “YES to Bavaria” basically means that everything should stay as it is. In their 24-page “government program” entitled “Life is simply better in Bavaria,” the Christian Socialists also made “business as usual” a principle.
Keep it up – with him, of course: Markus Söder is advertising on his own behalf.
Education didn’t matter
After CSU boss Markus Söder announced at the beginning of the year that he would make school policy a “top priority”, the CSU program contains the promise of additional teachers and more tablets. However, education did not play a major role in the election campaign. For example, the FDP wanted to score points with ideas for fundamental education reform, while the Greens wanted to talk about free school meals and more daycare places. Nevertheless, even when the shortage of teachers in Bavaria became clear once again at the start of the school year, there was no struggle for educational concepts.
The Greens and the SPD in particular tried to provide the government with energy policy. Söder countered the criticism of the delayed construction of power lines and wind turbines with the claim that Bavaria is a leader in the expansion of renewable energy – which, as is so often the case, is a question of interpreting the numbers.
When it comes to wind turbines, the CSU finally managed to at least relax the controversial 10H distance rule in the spring. A decision that had a lot to do with pressure from Berlin, but for which Söder repeatedly praised himself during the election campaign. Söder and his political partner Hubert Aiwanger from the Free Voters much preferred talking about the so-called federal heating law and the traffic light decision to stick to the nuclear phase-out rather than talking about Bavarian wind turbines.
The SPD also wanted to score points with the demand for affordable housing – an issue on which the Social Democrats were a major target for Black and Orange, after all, the state government has fallen far short of its own goals when it comes to housing construction. The CSU and Free Voters drew public attention to house and apartment owners by taking up the fight against inheritance tax, even though the state parliament does not decide on this.
This time, Söder tried to keep the AfD’s favorite topic – migration policy – out of the election campaign for a long time. In 2018 he received a lot of criticism for his rhetorical approach to the AfD (“asylum tourism”), then changed course and promised not to repeat this “mistake”. In the last phase of the election campaign, the topic became increasingly dominant nationwide, so that the CSU boss could not ignore it. Söder tried to go on the offensive by demanding an “integration limit” – also with a view to the competition within the coalition with the Free Voters.
The Greens and the “Bavaria Gene”
The coalition partner is a competitor of the CSU among conservative voters, and in some cases also the AfD. The constant fire against the Greens in this election campaign must be seen against this background. Söder denied the Greens a “Bavarian gene,” railed against “re-education ideas” and regularly received cheers for his no to the black-green coalition in Bavaria. Aiwanger accused the Greens of wanting to “destroy Germany”, complained about “left-green gender gaga” and stylized himself as an “anti-Green”. The listeners in the beer tents that Söder and Aiwanger tirelessly visited during this election campaign proved to be a particularly grateful audience for anti-Green polemics.
Especially in the final spurt of the election campaign, the FDP, which was fighting to get back into the state parliament, increasingly distanced itself from the Greens: “Bavaria does not need a ban policy,” says the Liberals’ election advertising, for example.
The Greens were exposed to hostility, catcalls and shouts of “go away” at election campaign events. They blamed Söder and Aiwanger in particular for the heated mood and complained about polarization and populism. In mid-September, a stone was thrown at the podium at a Green Party rally in Neu-Ulm, but no one was injured. Several parties complained that posters were defaced or destroyed more often than in previous election campaigns.
On the Wednesday before the election, the AfD caused a stir when it reported a “physical attack” on its federal leader Tino Chrupalla on the sidelines of a campaign event in Ingolstadt. The politician was actually taken to a hospital, but the cause of his symptoms was unclear. According to the public prosecutor’s office, there is so far “no evidence that Mr. Chrupalla was approached or attacked.”
Excitement about Aiwanger
And then there was the excitement about Hubert Aiwanger. After the CSU and Free Voters had been acting in harmony for a long time in their fight against the traffic lights, Aiwanger intensified his rhetoric with his speech at the Erdinger demonstration against the “heating law”. In doing so, he forced the CSU into an internal Bavarian dispute, which brought a new dynamic to the election campaign. Söder distanced himself from his minister’s choice of words, but he saw himself confirmed by the cheers in the beer tents and remained undeterred in his strategy.
The Free Voters actually emerged stronger from the debate about an anti-Semitic leaflet that Aiwanger was caught with as a student and made gains in the polls. The CSU responded with new attacks against the Greens, but also with attacks on the previous coalition partner.