Armin Laschet on tour through Saxony-Anhalt: Here at the Bauhaus Dessau
Photo: Sebastian Willnow / dpaTwo men with sunglasses and black suits are standing in front of the cathedral in Naumburg in Saxony-Anhalt and hold their hands behind their backs. They are security guards. Limos pull up, some photographers cavort on the square, the heat is glowing.
A small man with a sheepdog approaches the security forces. "Who's coming?" He asks.
"Well, the Laschet," says one of the men with sunglasses. The passer-by makes a surprised face: "Who?"
"Armin Laschet. The NRW Prime Minister."
"Oh well. Well then," says the man and walks away with his dog, obviously unimpressed, as if nothing else had happened.
The people of Naumburg stayed largely relaxed on this hot August Sunday when the North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Armin Laschet visited them. This weekend he toured for two days with the Saxony-Anhalt Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff through Saxony-Anhalt. On Saturday, Haseloff's home town of Wittenberg and the Bauhaus Dessau were on the program. On Sunday it was Naumburg's turn, the twin town of Aachen, which in turn is the birthplace of Laschet.
Laschet in Naumburg is not too well known, which is probably the reason for the trip. Laschet has to catch up in East Germany. In December he wants to be elected party chairman by the CDU party congress. A close race is expected and his opponent Friedrich Merz has a solid following in the east. Already in the election at the end of 2018 at the party congress in Hamburg, he had the Eastern associations behind him. In Saxony-Anhalt there was even a member survey from which Merz emerged as the clear winner. Although the number of delegates from the east is comparatively small, the failure of Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer showed that a good connection to the east is needed.
Can the NRW Prime Minister score points in the east?
Laschet and Haseloff walk through the pedestrian zone in the 35,000-inhabitant town of Naumburg. Laschet is amazed at the pretty little houses. Both have just come back from a service. "I was in church 30 years ago," says Laschet. Back then, for the reunification, Laschet was here for the last time. The Aachen CDU traveled to Naumburg to support, he says. He was also there in the first Volkskammer election. In 1984 he was even in the GDR once, with a college friend in Leipzig.
"It wasn't all bad," says Haseloff and laughs
Laschet tells this story an estimated 20 times today, basically everyone he comes across. In fact, that should be his only connection to the East German states. Laschet lives only a few kilometers from the Belgian border, the countries that are close to him are Belgium and Holland. So far it has had nothing to do with the East.
At least with Haseloff, who actually belongs to the Merz camp, Laschet obviously gets along well. The two already formed an axis when it came to the structural aid for the coal exit. Up to 40 billion euros are to flow from the federal government into the coal regions by 2038, a gigantic sum that was politically fought for. Even in the hot phase of the corona pandemic, Haseloff and Laschet sometimes shared a common line. The idea for the visit is said to have come up during one of these conversations, as they say.
Laschet had expressly wished to come to Naumburg then. "Blooming landscapes" were created here, as Helmut Kohl had promised, Laschet now says.
The prime ministers stop in front of an ice cream parlor. Haseloff has an idea: real GDR soft ice cream. "It wasn't all bad," says Haseloff and laughs. Here is the original recipe. Laschet is briefly surprised: "Soft ice cream? We had it too." The state heads of government now have two waffles with chocolate and vanilla ice cream in their hands.
The ice cream seller, who obviously didn't know Laschet before, still has a question: "Mr. Laschet, are you actually an Ossi or a Wessi?"
"You can't get more Wessi", answers Laschet and explains the difference between East and West Soft Ice. The ice cream, made by the GDR manufacturer Komet at the time, tasted the same everywhere. It was made with water and milk powder, not just milk. In addition, a machine in the west was used to pump air into the soft ice cream. "That is the crucial difference. We have something in the bag, in the West there is a lot of air," says the ice cream seller.
A picture of Habeck already hangs in Naumburg
Laschet is interested in what apparently resonates with the questioning citizens. He also has a great supporter here. Götz Ulrich, CDU district administrator of the Burgenland district, who also walks along. He is considered the liberal conscience of the Saxony-Anhalt CDU and interferes again and again when the right-hand blinkers of the regional association speak up.
Leading forces in the CDU in Saxony-Anhalt are indirectly promoting an alliance with the AfD. Ulrich is vehemently against it. "Laschet is the worthy candidate for the December election. The reason is his Christian-liberal understanding, which has also become clear in his politics in North Rhine-Westphalia," said Ulrich during the visit.
In the afternoon Laschet and Haseloff visit a modern photo exhibition by the photographer Jürgen Sieker in the Marienkirche at the cathedral, it is called: "Uta meets Nina". The famous twelve Naumburg donor figures can be seen, they are among the most important sculptures of the Middle Ages. In the exhibition, photographs of them hang on the wall, with a photo of a celebrity hanging next to them. Nina Hagen, for example, Naomi Campbell or Katharina Witt.
Laschet stops in front of one of the photos. "The Habeck is already hanging here," says Laschet, looking a little depressed. Even the Greens boss Robert Habeck from Schleswig-Holstein has apparently made it into the twelve top celebrities in the east, but hardly anyone knows him here.
At the end of his visit, Laschet is allowed to sign the city's golden book. The mayor tells him that he is in good company. Most of them have already been here.
Icon: The mirror
