Markus Söder: Gillamoos in Erding – “With laptop and leather pants” – Erding

The next state elections in Bavaria are coming up in a year and Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) is already in the middle of the election campaign. He has attended more than a dozen folk festivals in the past five weeks, at the weekend he was at Gillamoos and on Monday, following the autumn festival, at the Erdinger Weißbräuzelt. In front of an audience consisting mainly of CSU members, he not only presented himself as the prime minister in charge of the state, but also as a humorous show master. For Bayern and Erding there was only superlative praise, for the political opponent criticism, clichés and slapstick. The audience liked it: There was a standing ovation at the end of his speech.

In the past, posters for election campaign appearances by prime ministers in the district were pasted across the board, for Söder the advertising was comparatively unobtrusive; so discreet that some passers-by were surprised at the stream of visitors: “Yes, they are still partying, I thought the autumn festival was over.”

Open detailed view

Of course, the opponents of the third runway did not miss it: around 70 of them welcomed the CSU chairman when he arrived in front of the marquee with whistles and posters calling for a final stop to the climate-damaging prestige project. The reception in the beer tent was all the friendlier when Söder received a welcome applause with a parade march, surrounded by Minister of State Ulrike Scharf, Member of the Bundestag Andreas Lenz, District Administrator Martin Bayerstorfer and Mayor Max Gotz.

A large part of the tables in the marquee were reserved for the numerous and strong CSU local associations from the district, for JU and the women’s union. The rush of non-party members was limited, a quarter of the tent remained empty. In his welcome address, Mayor Gotz spoke of a “major event that shows who is interested”.

Performances to remember

Gotz called the appearances of prime ministers after the autumn festival a tradition and recalled Günther Beckstein, who allowed drivers two liters of beer at the autumn festival in 2008. He did not address the fact that Beckstein made himself a laughing stock and in the subsequent state elections first lost the absolute majority and then the party chairmanship.

Söder described the district as a “very strong region”, which is not only one of the best in Germany economically, but even “in Europe and globally”. We also owe this to District Administrator Bayerstorfer, who manages to preserve the identity despite the move. They have been friends since they first entered the state parliament as young men more than 25 years ago: “We were the longest and thought we were the biggest.”

“There will be no more locks”

Söder took stock of the past two Corona years and said, “our work has saved 130,000 lives in Bavaria alone”https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/erding/.” We remain cautious, but the situation today is not like two years ago,” he said in the context of folk festivals and the Wiesn. “There will be no more blocking and locking in Bavaria.” This was followed by loud cheers in the tent.

Söder also complained about the failure of the traffic light coalition in the energy crisis, which would have increased the costs of bakers tenfold, for example. If the gas storage facilities in Bavaria and Austria are not filled in time, the gas will run out as early as February: “No commercial enterprise can get away with a green washcloth.”

With edelweiss and e-mobile

“I have the feeling that against the background of major crises such as Corona and energy, other things in the country are also being changed,” Söder continued. “And I’m opposed to drugs being released.” As a teenager he read the book “Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo” and he didn’t want anything like that in Bavaria. Applause again, mugs up.

He also dislikes the fact that there is a “hard cultural debate about Winnetou”: “If you don’t like it, you should read Hanni and Nanni.” Bavaria is a free state, not a forced state.

“Yes, we’re in a crisis,” Söder concluded, “but we’ll get through it because we’re a strong country, with a laptop and lederhosen, edelweiss and e-mobile. We’re more successful than others, and that has something to do with setting the course do.” Goppel, Strauss, Seehofer “and now I” set the course for this: “God protect Bavaria, God protect Erding, God protect the CSU”. The audience jumped to a standing ovation. District Administrator Bayerstorfer handed over a wheat beer glass, an “Erdinger Busserl” for Söder’s wife and “treats for the dog” as a guest gift. The singing of the Bavarian anthem and the national anthem followed – and then the political party was over.