When Martin Zeil was asked about data protection, it became very quiet in the Pullach community center. The FDP München-Land is looking for its direct candidate for the constituency München-Land Süd this Thursday evening and Bavaria’s former Minister of Economics is one of two applicants. When asked whether sending his application by e-mail to all members of the district association was a mistake and damaging him and the party because he shouldn’t have had the e-mail addresses, the 66-year-old says: He did clarified with the FDP data protection officer in Bavaria that he had received a warning. However, there is no violation of guidelines. Zeil again left open where he got the data from.
However, he will no longer need the mailing list, which Gautinger claims to have long since deleted. What Zeil experienced in Pullach on Thursday evening was – to put it mildly – a debacle. Maybe also because of the data affair. Just over two weeks ago, the 66-year-old brought himself into play almost overnight as a direct candidate for the constituency and pointed out that he had received numerous “requests and encouragements” from the FPD district association. In Pullach, Zeil repeated this again, emphasizing his close ties to the district of Munich, which he represented in the Bundestag from 2005 to 2008 and in which he still has “many friends”.
The FDP district chairman Michael Ritz has a good laugh: his applicants won the direct candidacy vote.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
But there weren’t that many when voting on the direct candidacy. Only 18 delegates voted for Zeil, while 44 Liberals opted for Grünwald entrepreneur Marco Deutsch. A clear vote that surprised many. He did not expect such a clear result, said former district chairman Rochus Kammer. Katharina Diem from Kirchheim, who was elected last week in Grasbrunn in a much narrower vote with 16 to 14 votes against Veit Wiswesser from Unterföhring, also agreed to this as the FDP direct candidate in the Munich-Land North constituency.
Popular minds bring votes, which is why the party relied on Helmut Markwort in 2018
Diem and Deutsch have one thing in common: They are the preferred candidates of the FDP district chairman Michael Ritz. And so, above all, Marco Deutsch’s victory represents a success for Ritz, who should have strengthened his position within the district association. Because the Grünwalder lawyer played a not entirely harmless game. Nor represents Focus-Founder Helmut Markwort the constituency Munich-Land Süd in the state parliament and officiates there as senior president. And in Bavarian state elections, a well-known name sometimes plays an important role due to the electoral arithmetic: first and second votes are added up in the Free State, so popular heads can decide as vote bringers whether a party – like the FDP in 2018 – just barely made it into parliament creates and your own constituency is then also represented in the state parliament.
Ritz, however, decided on a different path and made it clear internally months ago that the FDP district association would no longer support Markwort’s direct candidacy again. Instead, the Grünwalder relies on a personnel renewal of his party, which is also reflected in the number of members and the age structure of the FDP in the district of Munich, as Ritz proudly announced in Pullach: In the meantime, the FDP members are on average two and a half years younger than before a few years ago, the average age was 46.5 years. And with a total of 435 members, the district association is stronger than ever.
Focus founder Helmut Markwort will move on to the district of Freising and run for office there again.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
And indeed, among the 62 voters in the community center, there were many members of the Julis, the youth organization of the FDP. The Young Liberals also include Katharina Diem at 34, who forms the FDP group in the district council together with Ritz and Manfred Riederle from Unterschleißheim. She is considered a close ally of the district chairman and the upcoming face of the liberals in the district. Marco Deutsch, who has already headed several sub-groups of the party and is currently chairman of the Liberal Seniors in Upper Bavaria, is also one of the district bosses’ confidants. He wanted to make politics for “young and old,” said Deutsch in his application speech in Pullach. But economic policy must also be brought back into focus, he wants to recruit skilled workers directly from abroad. Bavaria must become even more attractive as a location. And: “Bavaria needs politicians who stand by their actions and take responsibility.”
Martin Zeil, on the other hand, did not get through to the delegates with his triad of “freedom, the rule of law and a social market economy”. His political ambitions – also and especially in the district of Munich – are probably over. And Helmut Markwort, who was also present, will soon be moving on to Freising. The 85-year-old is trying again there as a direct candidate.