At the political morning pint at the Gillamoos folk festival, the Union leaders Merz and Söder sharply attacked the federal government. The subject of many other speeches was the leaflet affair by Bavaria’s Deputy Prime Minister Aiwanger.
Union leaders Markus Söder and Friedrich Merz sharply attacked the federal government in their speeches at the Gillamoos festival. “The Hampel traffic light is the worst government that Germany has ever had,” said CSU boss Söder at the joint beer tent appearance with CDU chairman Merz in Abensberg, Lower Bavaria.
“Fighting every week,” he criticized. “Back and forth week after week.” After the 2025 federal election, the Union will replace the traffic light, Söder predicted optimistically. “The traffic light will no longer be successful as a government in 2025. We will replace it together.”
The Gillamoos is one of the largest and oldest folk festivals in Lower Bavaria. On the Monday of the Volksfest, high-ranking politicians regularly appear in several beer tents at the same time and exchange blows. Shortly after the start of Söder’s speech, a disruptor tried to throw the Prime Minister off the hook. The man was carried out of the tent.
Merz closes Green as coalition partner out of
In his speech, CDU leader Merz alluded to the upcoming state elections in Hesse and Bavaria. He rejected the Greens as a possible coalition partner for the CDU and CSU. “You cannot be a coalition partner for us,” said Merz.
He referred in particular to the position of the Greens in immigration and asylum policy. The federal government is making “serious mistakes”. “The limits of the capacity and also the limits of the willingness of the population to take in people from other countries have been reached, if not exceeded,” said the Union politician. He accused the Greens of denying that illegal immigration even existed. “These Greens cannot be a coalition partner for the Union if they ignore reality like they do in immigration policy,” said Merz.
Regarding the leaflet affair of the free voter boss Hubert Aiwanger, Merz supported Söder’s decision to hold on to his deputy. Söder solved this very well. Merz, who hails from CDU-led North Rhine-Westphalia, praised Bavaria, which is governed by the CSU and Free Voters, as the “best” governed state in Germany.
Hubert Aiwanger from the Free Voters did not comment on the leaflet affair in his speech at the Gillamoos festival.
Aiwanger warns of division of Germany
In his speech, Aiwanger himself warned of a political split in the country. “This country is currently being deeply divided politically to the point of being unable to govern,” said the Free Voters leader. As an example, he cited surveys in eastern Germany, in which “fringe parties” received more than 50 percent of the votes. “Then democracy is in grave danger,” said Aiwanger.
His party therefore wants to make “an offer of sensible politics” to voters in the center, said Aiwanger. You have the duty to “name undesirable developments very clearly”. Aiwanger did not comment on the leaflet affair.
SPD and Greens attack Aiwanger
This played a role above all in the SPD and the Greens. Aiwanger behaves indecently, criticized SPD federal leader Lars Klingbeil in his speech. The political discourse would be shifted, “because decency is disappearing from politics,” he said. He accused Söder of selfishness: “He only looks at himself, but not at this state,” said Klingbeil.
The top candidate of the Bavarian Greens, Ludwig Hartmann, said: “Populism is the enemy of our democracy.” The mere appearance of anti-Semitism in the state government harms the drive for one’s own actions.
Kubicki demands more willingness to perform
In his speech, the deputy FDP chairman, Wolfgang Kubicki, called for more willingness to perform in Germany. “We’re falling behind in economic performance competition around the world,” said Kubicki. “Anyone who raises a generation that believes that the work-life balance has been properly organized with the three-day week will quickly notice how worse things are for us than we are at the moment.”
Kubicki only touched on the leaflet affair: “Hubert Aiwanger is a merciless populist, but that’s normal in Bavaria, so is Prime Minister Markus Söder.”
Weidel: “They are ruled by madmen and idiots”
Alice Weidel insulted the federal government in her speech: “We are governed by madmen and idiots,” said the co-head of the AfD, who emphasized the AfD’s claim to want to govern at federal state level in the future.
Looking at the current polls for her party in Saxony (35 percent), where a new state parliament will be elected next year, Weidel said: “The time is ripe for the first AfD state government.” Weidel also attacked the Bavarian Prime Minister Söder as a “self-promoter and turncoat”.