Anyone who wants to become a “district leader” in the CSU is usually something important, or used to be. Cabinet members such as Georg Eisenreich and Albert Füracker are among the ten powerful chairmen of the CSU district associations, as is Ilse Aigner, President of the Landtag. Although there have been exceptions to date, something happened in Obertheres over the weekend that makes you listen: Sandro Kirchner, who succeeded Eck in February as Secretary of State for the Interior, was not elected as Gerhard Eck’s successor as the Lower Franconian CSU leader. But the “simple” member of parliament Steffen Vogel. Already in Obertheres a reporter made the main post from: That on the evening “more democracy is dared than usual in personnel decisions in the CSU, that makes many at the base proud”. And anyone who speaks to Christian Socialists in the days that follow hears praise from everyone about the “lived democracy,” “the party is alive,” and some almost sound intoxicated. A “touch of anarchy”.
Underdog trumps establishment? That would be too hasty a reading, even if Vogel presented himself as such: he called himself the “basic motivator” and spoke of back rooms in which one was not allowed to play cards. “We can no longer really get close to the population,” so what is needed is not a statesman, but “welding capital”. Kirchner probably thought it would be a sure-fire success, qua official bonus. In the mood of the evening, that was more of a disadvantage: Vogel convinced a narrow majority that time was needed for the “work order”, which would be better without the burden of the government post. One says: The choice was “euphoria in exuberance against seriousness in exuberance”. Just two profiles, done.
So the atmosphere is great, nothing that requires an analysis of power relations – everyone is now emphasizing that. Things are complicated there too. It can be assumed that a man from his cabinet is Markus Söder’s preferred candidate. On the other hand, Vogel is said to have a good relationship with Söder and recently when he was elected to chair the Economic Committee in the state parliament (which he later lost), he was still the State Chancellery’s favorite. So in the end the only question that remains is: is democracy in the party normally so unlived? Everyone can think of their own part.