Another review of the year, this time: Markus Söder and the meat. It all started in February at Political Ash Wednesday, about which the Prime Minister said: “The CSU invented it and the others are copying it. It’s like tofu sausage or veggie burger – theoretically possible, but senseless and tasteless.” That brought Söder, well, beef with the animal welfare organization Peta. The rumor that the CSU had invented Political Ash Wednesday was allowed to go through with him. And, yes, you can argue about taste. But Peta did not want to let go of the pointless avoidance of meat – and countered on April 1st with a joke message on her homepage: “Markus Söder is now vegan.” Also a photo: Söder with Popeye-Muckis and parsley between the teeth.
In the spring or summer, Söder must have had a flash of thought that there could be a causality between meat consumption and the climate crisis. In September he was asked what he was doing without in order to reduce CO₂. Söder actually said that he was trying to eat “less meat”, which was “difficult for a Bavarian”. How difficult this is, at least for Söder, could be seen the next day in a tavern in Nuremberg, where the author of this column was talking to the CSU boss and watching as he ordered eight sausages. Didn’t he want …? He does, said Söder, he used to order twelve sausages.
Now it’s December and Söder grins from the image-Newspaper, in your hands: a plate with sausages, you count, of course. Ten pieces! Okay, the photo is older, but not this Söder demand: “Traffic lights shouldn’t dictate what we eat.” Söder is irritated that Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir wants higher meat prices, “on less animal husbandry by our farmers and instead on more cannabis cultivation”. Huh?
Just recently, Twitter was amazed at how Söder put the abolition of the epidemic emergency by the traffic light coalition in context with their legalization plans for cannabis. This time, however, ridicule is out of place. It has been scientifically proven that smoking weed makes you hungry, so some people are also hungry for meat. Less animal husbandry would be really counterproductive.