parties
Union offers SPD junior partnership
Markus Söder takes part in the meeting of the Federal Council. photo
© Christoph Soeder/dpa
The Union has wanted to replace the traffic lights since the end of its own term in government. The current migration crisis is making the CSU and CDU so desperate that even former taboos could become socially acceptable.
It’s actually absurd: In surveys, the Union is currently recording better results than it has in a long time, at up to 32 percent, but it still offers The CSU and CDU offer their junior partnership to the SPD. “A new government is needed,” said CSU leader Markus Söder on Friday in Berlin. “Doing what is necessary now means dismissing the FDP and the Greens and forming a new government of national reason.”
A few weeks ago, CDU leader Friedrich Merz made almost the same statement at the CSU party conference in Munich. According to reports, Merz was informed in advance about Söder’s latest move, but was still not really enthusiastic.
It is certainly nothing unusual that the Union is calling for the end of the traffic light government; in fact, it has been doing this for years. The fact that she would be willing to support the chancellorship of Olaf Scholz (SPD), at least until the next federal election in 2025, is remarkable. In the past, whenever someone raised the issue of a Union junior reign, any further thoughts about it were nipped in the bud.
Both a grand coalition under the leadership of the SPD or even a federal government with a Green Chancellor were taboo. This would “cause fundamental damage to the Union in the long term,” said Söder himself in May 2021. His former sponsor Edmund Stoiber (CSU) warned in September 2021 that participation in government without its own chancellor would significantly change the “internal structure of the Union”.
Desperation among Union parties
The fact that Söder and Merz are now making such statements has another reason and also shows how desperate the CDU/CSU parties are at the moment: They see no other way to solve the ever-worsening migration crisis and, as a result, to stop the AfD’s soaring can be. Neither the expansion of safe countries of origin nor more border protection or limiting immigration are feasible with the Greens.
What is needed is a “fundamental change in migration policy” and “not a half-hearted solution,” emphasized Söder on Friday in his justification for the junior partnership. “It takes a big hit now.” The traffic light made up of the SPD, Greens and FDP, which certified Söder’s “infirmity”, is no longer able to do this. There are “ideological brakes,” especially among the Greens. “In my opinion, the traffic light is stopped.” She has zero power and zero trust and authority among the population.
The First Parliamentary Managing Director of the Union faction in the Bundestag, Thorsten Frei, does not believe in a junior partnership. “The question does not arise at the moment,” he told the news portal t-online. The traffic light remains called upon to solve the serious migration crisis with its majority. The FDP member of the Bundestag Christoph Hoffmann openly threatened on n-tv with an end to the government coalition of the SPD, Greens and FDP if the Greens did not quickly agree to stricter measures against irregular immigration.
Overwhelmingly positive reactions in the Union
Despite Frei’s criticism, the internal reactions in the Union were mostly positive. It was said that the CDU and CSU had to take on more responsibility out of their own interest, to protect the country, cohesion and ultimately democracy.
“Destructive forces are becoming stronger. The centrifugal forces from the center of democracy are increasing. Basically, these are at least starting to be alarm signals, like the ones we experienced in Weimar,” said Söder with a serious expression. For weeks he has been making statements like this that are extremely concerned about the current division and radicalization in the country. In this context, he also likes to mention the founding of a party by the previous left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht.
For this reason, it is said, there are currently no calls for new elections. The Union could hope for a victory here, while the traffic light parties are likely to lose their majority. Without a solution to the migration issue, it must also be assumed that the AfD (currently already the second strongest force with 21 percent) will become even stronger. From the Union’s perspective, there is a need for “basic border protection” including rejections there, fewer financial payments to refugees and more safe third countries.
Merz as Vice Chancellor?
“We have such an explosive here for the cohesion of our society,” said Merz in September. If the problem is not solved, Scholz will be solely responsible for the consequences, “including the further radicalization of our spectrum of parties in the Federal Republic of Germany.” It is said that Merz himself could take a seat at the cabinet table in the grand coalition as Vice Chancellor and Finance and Economics Minister. Söder himself has no Berlin ambitions in this regard.
As expected, the traffic light government did not comment much on the Union’s offer. FDP deputy Wolfgang Kubicki reacted with amusement: “I don’t think you should take Markus Söder seriously. Either he is afraid of Bavaria and wants to go to Berlin, or he has made use of the new legal regulation to consume cannabis without to be persecuted,” he said in an interview with “Welt” television.