Markus Söder on »Maischberger«: The emperor »is the emperor and I am only the Markus«

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Markus Söder (archive image)

Photo: Sven Hoppe / dpa

The Bavarian Prime Minister is getting on the nerves, so it was in the "FAZ", the traffic light.

Elsewhere there are well-founded rumors that the CDU is also alarming.

He does this through gang and from a safe distance, in talk shows and from Munich.

For months, Söder has been the man who is reliably connected.

He, a Bavarian in heaven, is present from the screen.

If it really does show up in a studio, the production companies are already writing it in their announcements: "In the studio: Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder".

And then he doesn't come to Sandra Maischberger, who - after her psychotherapeutic session with Armin Laschet - would have loved to see him.

But the incidences, they did not allow the prime minister to gondola around the republic.

Five districts in Bavaria alone glow in deep purple.

A color that stands for incidences in excess of 1000.

That's why Söder is sitting in front of a picture of the state capital in the evening.

Frauenkirche and Peterskirche behind the father's broad back show different times.

That fits.

What he could have done as Prime Minister in the summer, he is now catching up all too late - and would rather talk about the future.

He didn't do anything wrong himself.

The "traditional" low vaccination rate is to blame, especially where Bavaria is most beautiful.

Söder simply declares the five purple districts to be strongholds of "lateral thinkers, imperial citizens and, to be honest, also esotericists".

They will thank you.

"4.6 million Bavarians" and probably one or the other Bavarian have not yet been vaccinated.

And in doing so, "we practically ran after the people."

Incidentally - by the way, it always gets tricky when Söder says "by the way" - "almost all epidemiologists" misjudged the danger of a fourth wave.

He himself didn't make a mistake.

Maischberger won't let him get away with it, by the way, and declines all the warnings, some with guidelines for measures that have been given by the relevant bodies since the summer.

Söder counters with other sources, including Alexander Kekulé.

And who has even proclaimed "the end of the epidemic situation" wants to know and resolves himself: "Our friend Jens Spahn".

Seldom has the word "friend" been pronounced so gallantly on German television.

Maischberger would still like to know why Bavaria opened the clubs again on October 1st.

Why he didn't introduce 2G, as the rulers did not only in Italy.

Well, "the incidences were absolutely low here," says Söder.

Incidentally, he was "massively pushed to make this decision by a number of media," including the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" and the "Welt".

"I have to stop there for a moment," says Maischberger.

"With pleasure," replies Söder amiably and adds with lurking affability: "I have no problem with that."

Isn't he really to blame?

Söder maneuvers that he may not have done everything right, but, contrary to what was insinuated and packaged by him in a distancing passive construction, not everything was done wrong.

What follows is a commonplace for which he earns applause: "Those who have been vaccinated are quite annoyed about why and with what arguments some people still do not get vaccinated."

There was a lack of harmony

For her part, Maischberger would now like to harvest what was sown in conversation with Laschet.

He sighed and complained about the cross shots from Munich, quoted from personal conversations with Söder.

For him it is a »question of style that you tell relatively little from confidential phone calls«.

After he had done exactly that beforehand, in connection with the defeat of the Union there was suddenly "little point in making a permanent attempt to distribute responsibility differently".

In historical terms - Franz-Josef Strauss!

- was he, Söder, still "one of the friendlier CSU chairmen."

He remembers the joint appearance with Laschet at the CSU party congress as “probably the most euphoric event” “that took place in the election campaign” - very different from the CDU's tired party in Stralsund.

He also refers to the joint campaign, the "Warning of the Left Slip," which, as is well known, has also been a great success.

No, it's all "analysis a little thin soup".

It was just not possible to "create harmony".

Please no comparisons with the emperor

Maischberger makes one last attempt to get Söder to admit a mistake and compares him with Franz Beckenbauer.

He never made mistakes, it was always the others.

But a Bavarian Prime Minister cannot be dribbled out with Beckenbauer.

The emperor "is the emperor and I am only the mark".

In the applause for this humble bon mot he says: "I make mistakes all day," buries the concrete under the all-too-human.

Certainly, “we could have achieved better results together”.

The »thing« was now »around the corner« and a majority of the Germans were simply »ready for another option«, even if »Armin Laschet and I would have swayed every day«.

So no mistake has been made.

Any criticism rolls off the Bavarian drake.

At least one can now guess how the private phone calls with Söder must have felt for Armin Laschet.