Armin Laschet speaks strangely softly. Meek, some who sit in the rows of chairs in front of him might think: many CSU dignitaries, but not only, a few ministers of state are there, and members of the Bundestag have also come to the Hanns Seidl Foundation. Some express their surprise that Armin Laschet is actually there. That he “does this to himself”, says one. Laschet himself says that he is in Bavaria almost every week. First the CSU party congress, then, exactly a week ago, the election campaign of the Union parties, now the birthday party. It should sound relaxed.
Stoiber’s virtue: internal criticism only
He would have liked to bring Edmund Stoiber a different birthday present than this election result, says Laschet. Complete silence in the hall – what’s next? All clear: he doesn’t want to talk about Jamaica, says Laschet, but about Stoiber. A man who practiced loyalty and always directed criticism inward, Stoiber lived this virtue. He would like it to stay that way between the CDU and CSU, that “we fight and then get together again”.
Nice words. Edmund Stoiber is not the only one sitting three meters in front of the candidate for Chancellor, who still is. But also his successor. What Markus Söder is thinking at this moment is unclear. It is also unclear whether Laschet perhaps addressed his Stoiber hymn of praise as a message to the current CSU chairman, following the motto: Markus, why are you not loyal?
Blume: “What loves each other teases each other”
The same question arises at Söder. “This passion! This interest in detail!” So the CSU chairman cheers his political foster father. “The conservatives admire you, the moderns are interested in you.” So far, so Stoiber-fair. But is it also an allusion to Laschet’s strategic failure? The lack of profile of the Union in the election campaign, which deterred both conservatives and those willing to change? You don’t need too much imagination for this reading. One who leans towards her is CSU General Secretary Markus Blume: “It’s like being among the best sisters: what loves each other teases each other.”
But only through gang. A gang called Stoiber. The 80-year-old is not only celebrating this evening, he is also a large projection screen for the two party leaders.
Laschet and Söder hardly talk to each other
Not once did Söder address Laschet directly in his speech. Incidentally, that would not have been possible even in a dialogue away from the stage: Söder had welcomed Laschet in front of the Hanns Seidl Foundation, in accordance with the protocol, for the photographers. Inside, however, the two party leaders stop talking to each other.
Open attack only against Schäuble
The only one Söder openly attacks in his speech is Wolfgang Schäuble. “Some always make the same mistake,” he says of the outgoing President of the Bundestag. It’s actually about the federal election campaign in 2002, Stoiber was the Union’s candidate for chancellor. Söder suggests that Stoiber failed because of Schäuble’s attitude to the Iraq war because of Gerhard Schröder. While Schröder rejected the war and the then CDU party leader Merkel at least never spoke out in favor of it, Schäuble wanted to keep German participation open as a parliamentary deputy. In doing so, he made the Union vulnerable with accusations of warmongering. In any case, it is undisputed that Schröder’s anti-war stance contributed to his election victory.
Even then, Schäuble was on the wrong side, that is to say, as it is now again: It was known to be Wolfgang Schäuble, who took a mighty position on Laschet’s side and pushed him through against Söder as a candidate for chancellor.