It can be pulled from the leather again: the political Ash Wednesday 2020 is here. This year, the eyes also go to Thuringia - Friedrich Merz speaks there.
- Also in 2020, political Ash Wednesday will pull on the leather.
- Markus Söder, Saskia Esken and Robert Habeck are the heads of four major federal parties in Bavaria.
- The view also goes to other federal states: In the CDU crisis, AKK appears in Demmin, Armin Laschet in the Sauerland and Friedrich Merz in Thuringia.
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Passau / Vilshofen - For some it is more entertaining than the carnival season that ended a few hours earlier: On political Ash Wednesday, top politicians in Lower Bavaria traditionally give out violently.
Ash Wednesday speeches could be particularly violent this year. Because the recent events in the political sphere of Germany polarized strongly: The CDU is not only looking for a new party leader, but also for a directional decision. And the thoroughly unsuccessful election of the Thuringian prime minister offers a broad area of attack for pithy announcements in a beer tent atmosphere.
Political Ash Wednesday: Söder, Esken and Habeck in Lower Bavaria
Markus Söder, Saskia Esken and Robert Habeck , the party leaders of the CSU, SPD and Greens, will take part in the Bavarian Ash Wednesday Events 2020 . While Habeck and Söder were already able to deliver Ash Wednesday speeches, Esken celebrates its premiere in Vilshofen. Compared to Martin Schulz 2017, the starting point is much more difficult for them - the SPD has been in a nationwide crisis for years, struggling with consistently poor poll values.
Ash Wednesday is also celebrated outside of Bavaria, for example in the Mecklenburg town of Demmin , where still CDU boss Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer is expected. Or in the Sauerland or Apolda in Thuringia , where CDU Vice Armin Laschet and Friedrich Merz want to use two of the potential successors.
Political Ash Wednesday: "Philosophy lesson in eco-socialism"? CSU closely monitors Greens
Esken had already declared months ago that on political Ash Wednesday he wanted to convey the “necessary messages” in a humorous way. “We'll see if I can do that. I definitely enjoy having such formats, ”she said. Söder and Habeck definitely do not have such thoughts, since their parties are extremely stable compared to the Social Democrats. But the same applies to the Greens in the long-term high and the CSU: No one can afford to make a mistake in the remote speech duel.
Greener with earthenware: Robert Habeck at the political Ash Wednesday 2018.
© dpa / Andreas Gebert
How big the respect for the Greens has long been at the CSU was shown in advance. Secretary General Markus Blume recently said that the CSU was "excited" what it would hear from Habeck's "Philosophy lesson in eco-socialism" at its event in Passau - the Greens meet in Landshut . The CSU used to squint at the SPD that day, but Söder had also repeatedly emphasized recently that he expected the duel green against black at the next federal election. Bavaria's prime minister, according to his own statements, already prepared (handwritten) well on the Monday of Monday:
What you do on Shrove Monday ... 20 pages of speech for Political Ash Wednesday - of course handwritten #csu #passau pic.twitter.com/BgmwGGFqmh
- Markus Söder (@Markus_Soeder) February 24, 2020Political Ash Wednesday: FDP, free voters, AfD and left also in action
The FDP could find it difficult to win something funny from the day. Secretary General Linda Teuteberg arrives for the Liberals. The FDP not only played a more than problematic role in Thuringia, but also suffered a bitter slump in Hamburg - and is drastically declining in the Bavarian surveys, as Merkur.de * reports.
Other Ash Wednesday locations are also Deggendorf, where free-voters leader Hubert Aiwanger appears and Linz in Austria - where left-wing icon Gregor Gysi speaks on a Danube ship. The AfD meets in Osterhofen, Lower Bavaria. The keynote speaker is the contentious member of the Bundestag, Stephan Brandner . Aiwanger had recently warmed up and criticized the federal government in an interview with Munich's Merkur *.
Political Ash Wednesday: After Hanau - tact is required
Either way, the prominent beer tent speakers will also need tact. In the speeches, the gleaning of the citizenship election in Hamburg and the alleged extreme right and racist violence committed by Hanau in the past week, with eleven deaths, should also play a role. The upcoming municipal election in Bavaria on March 15 is likely to be a rather harmless topic. We keep you up to date on all important statements in this news ticker.
Incidentally, the political Ash Wednesday celebrates its 101st anniversary this year: in 1919, the Bavarian Farmers' Association first invited to a rally on the occasion of the cattle market in Vilshofen in Lower Bavaria - the political spectacle was born. After the Second World War, the political Ash Wednesday was revived by the Bavarian party, before the CSU and all other parties followed.
dpa / fn
* Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.
