When Söder talks about Scholz, Maischberger has to cough and the audience applauds
“You can put a plaster over it again, but that doesn’t help,” says Söder at “Maischberger” about the traffic lights
Source: © WDR/Melanie Grande, free of charge
Bavaria’s Prime Minister sees “Maischberger” as a “traffic light emergency”. He calls for new elections – the traffic light is “used up internally”. Söder also recognizes a “state crisis” and compares it with the end of the Weimar Republic. The AfD wants to unmask Söder.
DThe Bavarian Prime Minister sees Germany in a state crisis and is currently calling for new federal elections every day. In the ARD interview with Maischberger, he specified his demands and described the traffic light coalition as “internally worn out” and ruled out cooperation.
Markus Söder described Chancellor Scholz’s government statement two weeks after the Constitutional Court’s budget ruling as “a kind of eulogy. It was “insanely disappointing” and “nothing at all”. “I had the feeling that the German Bundestag should be anesthetized,” he said. Even Maischberger couldn’t help but cough and smile and there was applause from the audience.
“Olaf Scholz can do more,” said Söder nicely in his assessment of the Chancellor. But: The Chancellor provided neither support, hope nor orientation for the citizens. Instead, Scholz also showed his people from the traffic light weak authority and leadership with the declaration.
The traffic light coalition and the people involved could no longer muster any strength for Söder. “You can put a plaster over it again, but that doesn’t help.” The federal government will no longer find the strength, predicted Söder. “The AfD benefits from the fact that the established government, the democratic forces, are unable to find solutions,” he then said.
Further statements about the right-wing party should follow. But this is not a doomsday scenario, but rather self-inflicted, said the CSU boss. This reminds him, not exactly, but of the end of the Weimar Republic 90 years ago. “Weimar failed not because the radicals alone were too strong, but because the Democrats were too weak. And that shouldn’t happen.”
“These are right-wing radical populists and some are descendants of the Nazis”
Maischberger reminded him that the AfD was also successful in the Bavarian election a month ago. Söder did not see any complicity; instead, the flow of refugees was an issue at the time and benefited the party. But the AfD also benefits from a national and global anti-establishment, said Söder. It is important that citizens differentiate themselves clearly enough from right-wing radicals. “We have to tear down their supposedly bourgeois attitude to show what they are. These are right-wing populists and some are descendants of the Nazis.”
Back to the traffic light coalition, Söder said that there would be no reform of the debt brake with the Union faction, even if some CDU members had a different opinion. Söder: “I would say that there is certainly discussion in the CDU. Not with us in the CSU, you can say that quite clearly.” If the debt brake were changed, the traffic light coalition would have no reason to stop, the CSU boss stated.
Then it would be a case of “cheerfully investing for everyone” again. That wouldn’t work. You can govern with the debt brake, and there is also “not an external emergency, but a traffic light emergency,” he said, alluding to the emergency budgets.
Instead, the heating law must be deleted, and citizens’ benefits must also be reduced. The costs of migration could be massively reduced, said Söder, without being specific about the content. “These lead to enormous additional expenses in our budget in Bavaria like in no other area. That’s too high.”
Regarding the traffic light: “You can put a plaster over it again, but that doesn’t help.”
He then praised former Chancellor Schröder for Agenda 2010. The 2003 reform package made the Federal Republic competitive with lower taxes, less bureaucracy and a social reform to Hartz IV. “That’s missing. The traffic light has weakened everything that affects the base load of energy and the competitiveness of the economy. And now at the end we are here and they are trying to solve it with state interventionism.” This is not successful from an economic point of view in the long term and helps three or four large corporations, but not the craft and medium-sized businesses. “Our country lives from the middle class and not just from foreign corporations.”
Once again it was about the alternative for Germany. Söder doubted Maischberger’s demand that the AfD in particular would benefit from new elections. “You can’t not trust democracy because you’re afraid of the AfD.”
There will be no cooperation with the traffic light on the part of the Union; for that to happen, “the Greens and SPD would have to be fired,” said the CSU party leader. He also doesn’t want to become a candidate for chancellor in new elections, Söder said at the end of what he considered a very relaxed individual interview with Maischberger, which he himself described as a “lively discussion” after the broadcast was recorded on X, formerly Twitter. As CSU party chairman and prime minister, he wanted to support the CDU from Bavaria and “check things out in Berlin from time to time.”