Maria Noichl brought 300 red hot water bottles to the traditional Epiphany meeting of the Munich SPD on Saturday in the Hofbräukeller, one for each participant. With the present, the MEP from Rosenheim wanted to illustrate what the Social Democrats stand for: “For the warmth between people.” She also declared the utensil a symbol of the need for compromises: “It doesn’t work with very hot or very cold water. It only works with a mixture of hot and cold water.” In doing so, she followed up on the speech by the Bavarian SPD leader Florian von Brunn, who had recalled how the first German democracy – the Weimar Republic – had ultimately failed: “The bourgeois parties were no longer able to find compromises .”
When getting ready for the political year 2024, Brunn spoke of the hope that it could be a good year: After all, the Basic Law is 75 years old, and the second German democracy has proven to be a “successful model”. But it could also be “a completely different year, a bad, black one,” said the SPD parliamentary group leader in the Bavarian state parliament. He sees great dangers facing the country from right-wing populists and extremists, not only in the European elections in the summer, but also in the state elections in three eastern federal states in the fall. “2024 will not be an easy year,” predicted Brunn: “We have to defend democracy.”
Munich’s Third Mayor Verena Dietl had already invoked the SPD’s task of holding society together in her welcoming remarks: “We want to ensure a good and secure future in Germany and Europe.” Maria Noichl, the top candidate of the Bavarian Social Democrats for the election to the European Parliament in Brussels, acknowledged a “difficult situation” and explained “why we need Social Democrats right now” – despite the currently continuing decline in the polls. Noichl’s answer: “We see how great poverty is in Europe and how widespread it is. We are rolling up our sleeves for more fair distribution. We stand for solidarity.”
For the Rosenheimer, good social policy is also part of European security policy, whether it is about defending against possible desires of Russian President Vladimir Putin or curbing the flow of refugees by combating the causes of flight. “In Africa, not everyone wants to go to Germany,” said Maria Noichl, “but everyone wants to live like they do in Germany.” Therefore, Europe must ensure social justice on the neighboring continent; The supply chain law initiated by the SPD is an instrument for this.
The SPD calls for solidarity in Germany and Europe.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
Maria Noichl had lots of hot water bottles in her luggage.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
Housing, progress and social justice: the topics were diverse.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
Like Brunn before him, Noichl also criticized the CDU/CSU opposition in the Bundestag. They should come to terms with the loss of their creative power, come to terms with their new role on the sidelines and from there make constructive suggestions instead of just complaining about the federal government’s policies. “Democracy doesn’t mean shouting the word ‘shit’ a hundred times in a row,” warned Noichl. Brunn had previously accused party leaders Friedrich Merz (CDU) and Markus Söder (CSU): “They are dividing us.” He also focused on the head of the Bavarian Free Voters: “Anyone who fires things up like Hubert Aiwanger has understood nothing about political responsibility.”
The Munich SPD has been taking this into account in local politics for decades, even “in difficult times like now,” later emphasized Christian Köning, the head of the local SPD association and the city council group in the town hall. “Many people in Munich are afraid of a loss of prosperity and do not feel that things have become fairer,” he admitted and called on his party colleagues: “We have to explain what we are doing about it – and what is preventing us from doing more.” The core topic of his lecture was housing construction to enable affordable living in Munich. But for this the city needs the support of the Free State, and “the main problem is that the CSU has been failing there for years.”
The previous speakers saw Köning’s call for “socially just progress” as being threatened by the right-wing parties in Germany and Europe. They wanted the welfare state to be dismantled. With reference to Brexit, Great Britain’s exit from the European Union, Florian von Brunn appealed: “Whoever votes for the right is voting for prosperity. Whoever votes for the extremists is voting for the gravediggers of Europe.”