Status: 08/21/2021 2:08 p.m.
With attacks against the SPD and the Greens, the Union has opened the hot election campaign phase. The choice is an important directional decision, said Chancellor candidate Laschet. CSU boss Söder called for a “finally sensible election campaign”.
Five weeks before the election, the Union opened the hot phase of the campaign with a declaration of war, especially to the SPD and the Greens. Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet warned of a left-wing government after the federal election. “I will fight with everything I can to ensure that this country is not taken over by ideologues,” said the CDU politician at the official start of the election campaign in Berlin. “In the next 36 days we will fight for the Union to become the strongest force on September 26th.”
Laschet attacked the SPD, the Greens and the Left Party in particular. The federal election is an important directional decision. “It is fundamental who rules.” The Union wants to govern, “not because we want to govern, but because we have to govern so that Germany takes a good path”.
The CDU boss campaigned for a business-friendly design of climate change, for a waiver of tax increases and for a courageous reduction in bureaucracy. “If we don’t make it, if this economic performance goes down the drain, if we get mass unemployment – then no country in the world will follow our path.”
Söder: “Finally make a sensible election campaign”
In his speech, CSU leader Markus Söder called for “finally a sensible election campaign” to be carried out. He warned of a loss of government power. It will be very close, everyone must now understand that everything is at stake. In view of the falling polls, the Union is no longer just about how and with whom it wants to govern, but about whether it will still govern at all.
But Söder also assured the followers that nothing was lost. “There is cause for a fight,” he said, emphasizing: “I don’t feel like the opposition.”
Merkel: Laschet “future Federal Chancellor”
Chancellor Angela Merkel pointed out that in this election, for the first time since 1949, an incumbent head of government will no longer run: “The cards will be reshuffled.”
Like Söder, Merkel stood behind Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet and described him as the “future Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany”. In 72 years of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Union had appointed the Chancellor for more than 50 years. These should be followed by further years of government.
Warning against experiments
The general secretaries of the CDU and CSU, Paul Ziemiak and Markus Blume, called on their parties to fight for the Chancellery in the face of poor poll results. “This federal election is not just any play of colors. This federal election is a directional decision,” said Ziemiak. He warned against left-wing experiments, even an experiment with a traffic light should not be allowed. “A CDU-led federal government is not an experiment, but a Union-led federal government is a guarantee.” The Union not only wants to make “politics for vegan art students”, but for everyone in the country. The general election on September 26th will be a historically close race
Both General Secretaries emphasized the unity of the Union. “Do not underestimate us, the Union. It is there and we will fight together,” shouted Blume in front of a good 100 election campaigners who were present in the Tempodrom. The SPD is and will remain a party to the burden. Their candidate for chancellor and finance minister Olaf Scholz is “not the man of the common people, it is rather the comrade of the bosses,” said Blume with a view to the Wirecard and the Cum-Ex scandal. The Greens remained a “party of prohibitions”.