All eyes are on London on Saturday for the coronation of King Charles III. The CSU, on the other hand, is looking to Nuremberg to choose its top candidate for the state elections in Bavaria. Five months before the election, the party officially designated Prime Minister and party leader Markus Söder as its top candidate at a party conference in Nuremberg. The CSU board of directors had recently unanimously proposed the 56-year-old. And the vote of the delegates in Nuremberg was only a formality. Voting was by show of hands and without a formal count. There were no dissenting votes with this voting mode. “Uh, yes, I really thank you very much,” said Söder after the election. The election result is a great signal to the outside world.
According to all current polls, the CSU can look calmly to the election on October 8th: it last ranged between 40 and 42 percent. That would be a clear improvement on the result of 2018, when the party only achieved 37.2 percent and lost its absolute majority in the state parliament. Since then, the Christian Social Party has governed in a coalition with the Free Voters. Söder has repeatedly emphasized that he wants to continue the alliance in the coming legislative period. On the other hand, he has repeatedly and vehemently ruled out a possible coalition with the Greens.
Söder used the party conference speech to attack the traffic light parties in many ways, especially the Greens, whom he repeatedly accused of a policy of re-education and prohibition. “Bavaria deserves something better than a traffic light,” he said, referring to the state elections. “What doesn’t work in Berlin shouldn’t exist in Bavaria either.”
At the party conference, for example, Söder sharply asked Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) to fire his State Secretary Patrick Graichen. “Habeck has to fire Graichen,” said Söder. Otherwise the Graichen affair would be a Habeck affair. Graichen has been under massive criticism for days because he was involved in the selection of the new managing director of the German Energy Agency, Michael Schäfer, even though he was his best man.
Söder criticized the personnel policy of the Ministry of Economic Affairs as a whole. “The whole green clan is somehow occupied there,” he said, “brother, sister, uncle, aunt.” And if you keep looking, you’re sure to find some Schwippschwager. “This is nothing more than green corruption,” criticized Söder. Should anyone from the Greens accuse the CSU of felting again, then he would call out to them: “Solve your own problems.”
Söder announces state-owned company for the construction of wind turbines
In his keynote speech, the CSU politician also spoke about the faster expansion of wind power in Bavaria. Söder now wants to set up a state-owned construction company called “Bayernwind”. He wanted his own company “so that it wasn’t just any investors who made money”.
Söder repeatedly emphasized that, contrary to what all critics claim, Bavaria is way ahead of the rest when it comes to renewable energies in a nationwide comparison. “In terms of installed capacity, we are the clear number 1 in Germany.” Until sufficient renewable energies are available to cover the growing demand in Germany, however, it is wrong to do without nuclear energy, according to Söder. There is a concrete danger that there will be different electricity price zones in Germany that put Bavaria at a disadvantage.
Söder open to state takeover of Uniper hydropower plants
Söder was also ready for the Free State to take over the Uniper hydropower plants. “Yes, if the federal government were to sell the hydroelectric power plants, then we are open to it.” He left it open whether he meant a complete takeover or just a partial participation. After Uniper got into financial difficulties as a result of the energy crisis, the federal government took over the hydroelectric power plants. As a result, the Bavarian Greens had repeatedly called for the power plants on the Isar, Lech, Danube and Main to be taken over by the Free State.
This position was also supported by the majority of people in Bavaria in a recent representative survey. In the 1990s, the hydroelectric power plants were sold by the Free State. According to a survey, around 81 percent of respondents in Bavaria consider this decision to be a strategic mistake.
The CSU is planning another major party conference for September, shortly before the state elections. The entire party executive, including Söder, will then be re-elected there as scheduled. This party conference should also last one day. In recent years, only one large party congress per year was usual, but then always over two days.