Local elections in Bavaria: AfD trouble for the CSU? "You will be infiltrated and shut your eyes!"

Local elections are held in Bavaria on Sunday. Now the CSU has canceled all public events until April 19 - the reason is the corona virus.

• The Bavarian local elections on March 15 are imminent.
• A candidate for mayor in the Augsburg district is infected with the corona virus.
• You can read all the latest developments in Bavarian local elections in this news ticker .

9:50 p.m .: A few days before the local elections in Bavaria , the CSU threatens to cause trouble from Lower Franconia. The stumbling block is the adherence of a CSU branch to a controversial candidate for mayor : Oliver Fell stands for the party in Oberleichtersbach in the district of Bad Kissingen Messages on Facebook . The SPD district association Bad Kissingen speaks of "aggressive comments against refugees".

"I let myself be provoked," Fell told the newspaper recently on request. He shared a lot of content "emotion-controlled" and "without thinking" and "made statements that are not correct". The behavior of the local politician on Facebook has changed since the end of August 2019 - it is now dominating the election campaign. Fell only joined the CSU in September. He went through a "maturing process", but "did not want to hide his story," said the candidate for mayor of the Main Post.

On site, there is obviously no need to say goodbye to Fell as a candidate. One distances oneself from "tastelessness", which could be read on Fells' profile until August - however, no unacceptable statements by Fells have become known since he joined the CSU, said CSU chief Sandro Kirchner . The district association said that no violations of the statutes had been found, but distance themselves from possible “right ideas”. The party leadership in Munich has not yet commented on the topic.

There has been harsh criticism from the Greens. The state CSU is "in the bushes", complained Manuela Rottmann in a tweet. "You are infiltrated and shut your eyes," she wrote on Tuesday evening. Former Federal Minister Renate Künast asked in a tweet addressed to the CSU: "Hey Bavaria, what's going on there?"

Local CSU clings to AfD Posts as Mayor candidates. @CSU in the country is in the bushes. You will be infiltrated and close your eyes! @Markus_Soeder can save the sayings because of "clear edge". Https://t.co/QRZaDEYSyx @SZ_Politik @ BR24

Meanwhile, the Kripo Schweinfurt is investigating an investigation against a member of the town council of Oberleichtersbach - the non-party politician, who is also on the list of the CSU, is said to have sent a Nazi video on WhatsApp, as the BR reports. It is not publicly known which candidate it is.

Local elections in Bavaria - Because of corona virus: CSU also cancels all public events

Update of March 10, 3:30 p.m .: Due to the spread of the novel corona virus, the CSU is canceling all public events by the end of the Easter holidays on April 19 - probably throughout Bavaria. "After the feedback from our associations, we assume that all public CSU events will be canceled," said Secretary General Markus Blume on Tuesday. He expects other parties to cancel their public events. "The protection of all fellow citizens must always come first - even during election campaign times," emphasized Blume.

In an email to all local, district and district associations as well as the party executive, Blume had previously informed about the step of the CSU at the state level and "strongly" recommended that all party structures should also follow this requirement. "In particular, rallies, panel discussions, election parties and the like should be considered." The holding of internal meetings, meetings and information stands is at local discretion.

Corona virus in Bavaria: Greens cancel Habeck appearances

Due to the spread of the novel corona virus, the Bavarian Greens are canceling all public events with Federal President Robert Habeck . A party spokeswoman said on Tuesday on request. This affects ten election campaign events that Habeck would have wanted to take in the days leading up to the Bavarian local elections this Sunday. Among them is the campaign highlight planned for Wednesday with Habeck at Munich's Marienplatz .

Coronavirus: Fridays for Future cancels demonstration ahead of local elections

Because of the spread of the novel corona virus, the climate protection movement Fridays for Future is canceling large demonstrations planned for Friday ahead of the Bavarian local elections. “With a heavy heart, we are canceling the major climate strikes planned for Friday,” the activists wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. Instead of on the streets, people want to protest online “all the louder”. A spokeswoman said in a live press conference in Munich online that there were no protests in the big cities, but smaller protests did. There will also be "various creative actions" on Friday.

Another representative of climate protection officials said that it is still not possible to give more precise figures . Fridays for Future had called for demonstrations especially in Bavaria this Friday to focus on climate protection before the local elections on Sunday. Activist Luisa Neubauer said in Munich that other states are considering canceling demonstrations to curb the spread of the virus. Instead, "massive digital strikes" will be called for next Friday - this means, for example, posting pictures of protest signs on the Internet.

2020 local elections: strangers light the EU flag on the house of OB candidates

Update of March 9, 3:04 pm: A European flag has been set on the house of the Mayor candidate of the Volt party in Bamberg by previously unknown people. "We are still investigating whether this was a targeted attack on the OB candidate," said a police spokesman on Monday. The flag was set on fire on Saturday night while the politician and his wife were sleeping. Part of the flag was melted by the heat. Slight soot has appeared on the facade. The police estimated the damage at 30 euros.

Volt was founded two years ago as the "first pan-European party", as it says on its website. In the local elections in Bamberg, Volt competes with 15 candidates for the city council and one OB candidate. According to the party, the party wants to campaign for more public participation, affordable housing and a new transport concept.

Local elections in Bavaria: Very great interest in postal voting - connection with corona virus?

Update of March 9, 2020, 9.55 a.m .: There is great interest in postal voting before the local elections in Bavaria . In many places, a week before the election, the number of postal ballot applications exceeded the number of postal voters in the 2014 local elections . This resulted in a dpa survey in ten cities. The corona virus has so far had little impact on the preparations for the elections.

At the end of last week, around 40,600 postal ballot applications had already been made in Augsburg. In the 2014 election, there were ultimately around 27,680 postal voters, a spokeswoman for the city said. In Würzburg, around 31,600 applications for postal votes had been made by Thursday. According to the city, there were around 25,000 postal voters in 2014. The cities of Munich, Nuremberg, Landshut, Regensburg, Ingolstadt, Schweinfurt, Bamberg and Straubing report similarly high numbers.

The numbers reflect the trend towards more postal voters . This has been evident for several elections. In the state capital of Munich, too, the postal ballot applications are above the level at the same time in 2014 one week before the election. However, the number of postal ballot applications has so far been significantly lower than before the 2017 Bundestag election.

Local elections in Bavaria: Mayor candidate in the Augsburg district infected with coronavirus

Update of March 6, 2020: A candidate for mayor in the Swabian district of Augsburg has become infected with the new corona virus. Werner Halank (53) is affected, who wants to move into the town hall in the municipality of Bonstetten northwest of Augsburg in the municipal election for the free voters, as the district office announced on Friday.

The lawyer had "massive election campaign" in the past few days, said a spokesman. Therefore, the authorities have now tried to limit the number of contact persons as quickly as possible by means of a public appeal. "He shook a lot of hands, so there is no other way." Bonstetten has around 1400 inhabitants.

According to the district office, this is the third confirmed case of infection in the district. Halank's wife had already been tested positive for the Sars-CoV-2 virus on Wednesday. The test was initially negative for the couple's three children.

2020 local elections in Bavaria: three candidates for Munich OB office in speech duel

Update of March 5, 2020: In the run-up to the Bavarian local elections , the three promising candidates for the office of Mayor of Munich will compete in an exciting speech duel on Thursday evening. You can see what Dieter Reiter (SPD) , Katrin Habenschaden (Greens) and Kristina Frank (CSU) have to say on stage at the election arena organized by Munich's Merkur in the live stream at Merkur from 7 p.m. de *.

First report from March 4, 2020:

Munich - Local elections will take place in Bavaria on March 15. Then, in most of the cities, municipalities and districts of the Free State, district councilors, mayors and municipal or city ​​councils are elected for the next six years.

Local elections in Bavaria: The runoff election will take place on March 29

Due to the large number of candidates for mayor, it is rather unlikely that a candidate will get the required absolute majority in the first round of the election. Therefore , a runoff election is planned for two weeks later, on March 29th . A total of around 39,500 mandate holders are appointed in Bavaria. And although the corona virus is also the number one topic in the Free State and therefore a number of major events have been canceled, the municipal elections are to be held as planned according to the current status. Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter nevertheless called a crisis team for extraordinary events due to the new lung disease. The city of Munich also informed about this on Twitter.

#Coronavirus OB Reiter has convened a staff for extraordinary events: "I want to make sure that we are well prepared in # Munich and that we can keep the citizens informed about the current situation."

And regardless of the corona virus, the local elections in the Bavarian capital are eagerly awaited. Acting Mayor Dieter Reiter * is in the lead, according to a survey on Monday, but he may have to be in the runoff. 49 percent of those surveyed would currently vote for the SPD candidate, according to the survey * published exclusively by our newspaper earlier this week about the most promising mayor candidates in Munich. But Reiter would just miss a victory in the first ballot. For that he would need more than 50 percent.

Polls local elections in Bavaria: Dieter Reiter (SPD) leads the Munich OB election

Greens candidate Katrin Habenschaden * received 17 percent of the vote, Kristina Frank of the CSU * 16 percent . The remaining percentages are distributed among other OB candidates, of whom a total of 14, including the three favorites, will run for election in Munich. They will probably not play a major role on March 15th.

The Left Party is also interesting in the Bavarian local elections. Because in this year's election , more left-wing politicians are applying for mandates than ever before . Representatives could be elected in a total of 24 out of 25 independent cities and 52 out of 71 counties, the regional association said on request of the German Press Agency.

Local elections in Bavaria: Around 1800 people stand for the left

In addition, the left can be elected in 52 district towns and municipalities and ten district committees. And it also competes in six cities and six counties in alliance with other parties. A total of around 1,800 people would appear on left-wing election lists . The average age is 44 years .

“For the first time ever, a party to the left of the SPD will anchor itself in large parts of the country in 2020. Even with a pessimistic count, we can expect a quadrupling of left-wing mandate holders . It is a huge success, ”said Head of State Eva Bulling-Schröter . Co-head of state Ates Gürpinar spoke about the political priorities of the party: the left would advocate stopping the division in Germany and tackling a socio-ecological restructuring.

Further information on local elections in Bavaria *, for example who is entitled to vote and how to fill out the ballot papers correctly, can also be found in our overview article.

dpa, cia

* Merkur.de and tz.de are part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.