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Bavaria's Prime Minister Söder and Chancellor Merkel after the Prime Minister's Conference
Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa
The press conference in the Chancellery has just ended, Markus Söder has already got up, he has put on his diamond mask in Bavarian blue and white, Angela Merkel her mouth and nose protection - but the microphones are still on: "Now I have it just got used to it, "said the Chancellor to Bavaria's Prime Minister.
He replies: "I'll sit on the other side then."
Söder on the right of the Chancellor - that was a familiar picture over the past few months in the corona crisis.
The Bavarian chaired the Prime Minister's Conferences for one year, now he is handing over the management to the next country chief, Berlin's Governing Mayor Michael Müller.
The Bavarian knew how to use his appearances in the role of sidekick, he was always the dominant figure of the event alongside Merkel.
Also on this late afternoon, at his last appearance as MPK boss, the CSU boss has again prepared pithy sentences that should stick.
Merkel also warns once again.
"The summer got through pretty well," she says, but "we know that the more difficult time lies ahead of us."
But the clearer messages come again from Söder.
"Corona is and will remain dangerous," he says.
"More masks, less alcohol, smaller celebrations" - with this triad, Söder summarizes in staccato how the virus can be kept small in the coming months.
It is an "important day because it was a fork in the road," he says of the previous switching conference with Merkel and the country colleagues.
The Corona motto for autumn must be: "Caution instead of recklessness".
Söder is the political winner of the corona crisis.
His approval ratings have skyrocketed in the past few months, even outside the Free State's borders, that he has already passed the greatest in CSU history: From the Ruhr area at the latest, Franz Josef Strauss and Edmund Stoiber were considered difficult to place in Kiel or Cuxhaven one finally waved off.
It looks different with Söder, which is why he has many fans in the CDU as a possible candidate for Union Chancellor.
According to a recent Civey poll for SPIEGEL, the CSU leader is clearly favored by Union supporters as a candidate for the Chancellery.
Söder is there as a successful crisis manager
He apparently managed to do this because, thanks to his appearance, his clear language and the strict approach to the virus, many citizens see Söder as a successful crisis manager.
Whether this will hold up against the facts in view of the pandemic situation in Bavaria and some mishaps is another question, and some Prime Minister colleagues also have their doubts.
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Merkel and Söder in the switching conference, Hamburg's Prime Minister Peter Tschentscher on the screen
Photo: Jesco Denzel / dpa
Söder owes his jump in popularity to the fact that since the beginning of the corona crisis in the past six months, he has been regularly seen with Angela Merkel as chairman of the Prime Minister's Conference, who has also done a lot right in the eyes of the population.
In the opinion of some official colleagues, Söder sometimes enjoyed it a little too much and cared a little too little about the organizational duties of an MPK boss.
But now he's rid of the job.
And what was the agreement on Söder's departure?
Bavaria's head of government and Hamburg's mayor Peter Tschentscher emphasize that they have never been so united.
It can be heard from participants that right at the beginning of the video switch, two prime ministers from the new federal states are rather unwilling, who are generally skeptical of tougher Corona measures.
The Prime Ministers of Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt are reluctant to begin with
According to the participants, Saxony's CDU Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer said he liked to listen to the group, but stuck to his own strategy.
And Saxony-Anhalt's Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff, it is reported, then jokingly asks the "listening journalists" to please discuss quotes from the conference with his government spokesman.
He is likely to be alluding to the previous switching conference, when Haseloff and the Chancellor were rumored to have a dispute during the ongoing talks.
Accordingly, the CDU politician had complained about a formulation, whereupon party colleague Merkel reprimanded him: "But Reiner, you speak German."
In the end, they all agree on the following points:
In the future there should be a fine of at least 50 euros if someone
cheats
with the
contact details
.
Accordingly, there is a threat of a penalty if you provide incorrect personal data in the restaurant.
Private celebrations
in public spaces should be limited to
50 participants
if there are more than 35 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in a district.
If the number of new infections rises to 50, a maximum of 25 people should come together in restaurants or other rented rooms.
There are no regulations
for
private apartments and houses
, only the appeal not to celebrate with more than 25 people.
Merkel and the Prime Minister also appeal to citizens
to refrain from
traveling to risk areas
.
There should be more rapid test procedures, and the current test strategy is to be expanded.
The federal states are responsible for the specific implementation; they decide on changes in the respective Corona regulations and catalogs of fines.
The outgoing Chairman Söder is so satisfied after this Prime Minister's Conference that he even praised Berlin's Prime Minister Michael Müller, who is facing high new infections in some districts of the capital.
Müller acted too hesitantly, was the criticism of the Social Democrats from the federal government and other countries.
Now Söder says: "Mr. Müller was a very good and constructive partner today."
It sounds a bit hypocritical.
Especially in view of the fact that Müller will soon be leading the conference.
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