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CSU names Weber as Europe’s top candidate – attacks on AfD
“CSU will defend what the founding fathers would have built”: Manfred Weber (l.) and Markus Söder. photo
© Peter Kneffel/dpa
A fateful election for the continent – that’s how the CSU sees the European elections. But it’s also about your own result. That’s why the party primarily – but not only – borders in one direction.
With EPP boss Manfred Weber at the top, a clear but also critical pro-Europe course and a hard demarcation from the AfD, they want to CSU scores points in the 2024 European elections.
Weber, who was officially named the CSU’s top candidate, and party leader Markus Söder swore their party would fight hard, especially against right-wing and populists. Weber spoke about Nazis and neo-Nazis, especially with regard to the AfD – they would not let them destroy Europe. Both described the election as a fateful election for the continent.
Söder also used the delegates’ meeting in Nuremberg to attack the federal government: “This government has run aground,” he said. Given the problems in budget policy, Germany is in a serious state crisis, said Söder. “We don’t have a budget emergency, we have a government emergency.” The government is planless and headless.
Söder: “Bavaria doesn’t need anyone else”
Söder and Weber also called for people not to vote for the Free Voters on June 9th. In Europe, the Free Voters play no role, said Weber. Only the CSU stands for an assertive Bavaria. Söder said: “Bavaria needs the CSU – and doesn’t need any others.”
Weber was voted number one on the CSU list in Nuremberg with 96 percent. He received 240 out of 250 votes cast, ten delegates voted no. The 51-year-old had already run as the top candidate in the 2019 European elections – back then for the entire European People’s Party (EPP) and the office of Commission President, which he did not get in the end. Since 2022, the Lower Bavarian has held the position of group leader in the European Parliament as well as the EPP party chairmanship.
Weber criticizes AfD right winger Björn Höcke
Weber particularly attacked the AfD. AfD right winger Björn Höcke had formulated that this Europe must die, criticized Weber, and thereby expressed “what the actual substantive thinking of these Nazis is.” “I would like us as the CSU to say against this with a loud voice: We will take from you nationalists our Europe, which is certainly not perfect, but our Europe, which is the most beautiful we have ever had in the history of this continent, the best we’ve ever had in the history of the continent, we won’t let you neo-Nazis destroy it,” Weber said to loud applause.
Weber also distanced himself from – in his words – left-wing and green ideologues. A “centre politics” is needed. Weber described migration policy and the lasting security of peace and prosperity as the central challenges for Europe.
Söder particularly called for solutions in migration policy: “A significant reduction in immigration to Germany and Europe” is needed. The CSU boss also reiterated his demand that, in case of doubt, the basic right to asylum must also be adjusted.
Söder wants Europe “also for the little people”
Söder called for a commitment “to a Europe of protection: protection of borders, protection of social standards, protection of the population in Europe, especially against the turmoil and insecurities of the world.” There needs to be a Europe “also for the common people, not just for the European elites”. The CSU is highlighting this. One should not believe that Europe can solve all problems alone, for example in climate protection: make a contribution, yes – but not solve them alone.
The previous MEPs Angelika Niebler, Christian Doleschal, Monika Hohlmeier and Markus Ferber as well as the newcomer Stefan Köhler were elected to places two to six on the list. So far, the CSU is represented in the European Parliament by six parliamentarians. The agricultural expert Marlene Mortler no longer ran. Instead, Köhler is now in sixth place as a farmer.