CSU leader Markus Söder courted Annalena Baerbock's party.
Mittelstandsunion boss Franz Josef Pschierer thinks this is wrong.
Munich - Between the heads of the CDU and CSU, Armin Laschet and Markus Söder, the dispute about the programmatic orientation of the Union before the federal election intensifies.
Söder calls Schwarz-Grün an “exciting team of the future”, Laschet says that there is no black-green project, that is, “no common idea for which one competes”, and promotes an alliance with the FDP.
We asked the head of the CSU SME Union and member of the state parliament, Franz Josef Pschierer (64).
Mr. Pschierer, who is right now?
The Union's natural partner was and is the FDP.
With the Greens you can at best manage the past, but not shape the future.
Guido Westerwelle once aptly said: “Half of the Greens are employed by the state, the other half live from the state.” In the future, we will need more self-employed people and start-ups and fewer civil servants.
Many German citizens see things differently with the Greens.
Annalena Baerbock is currently the most popular of the three candidates for chancellor.
For me, Ms. Baerbock is just the pretty packaging.
On the other hand, if you read the 134 pages of the Greens election manifesto, you will discover a pure prohibition and gender party.
In her résumé so far, Ms. Baerbock has not yet come into contact with the harsh realities of everyday life for employees, workers, freelancers and self-employed people and has not yet borne any significant responsibility for personnel and money.
I consider leaving her to run the Chancellery as a high risk.
For me it embodies nothing more than a kind of politics from the beautiful living environment in the urban centers of our big cities.
The Greens have now arrived in the middle class.
One can only hope that the citizens, for example in Munich's posh districts Bogenhausen and Haidhausen, will recognize in good time that their personal lifestyle is difficult to reconcile with the election manifesto of the Greens.
Nevertheless, society is changing, and Söder is reorganizing the CSU.
The CSU must not become greener than the Greens, but must reflect on its roots.
Bavaria had the first environment ministry as early as 1970 and Max Streibl was the first environment minister.
Since then, the CSU has endeavored to strike a balance between economy, ecology and social requirements.
Is that enough as the CSU's answer to the climate question, which could decide the election?
Ultimately, it's about the question of how we want to do environmental and climate policy in the future.
With bans and regulations - or with market economy principles and incentive systems, such as CO-2 pricing?
What we need is by no means green fundamentalism that leads to a dead end.
Anyone who believes that more regulation, more government and more bureaucracy can master the challenges of the future is wrong.
Bavaria's prosperity is based on an efficient, future-oriented industrial policy and a wide range of medium-sized businesses with hundreds of thousands of owner-managed and family-run businesses.
What messages should the CSU use to attract voters in the opinion of the SME Union?
That we stand up for a social market economy that gives greater weight to the principle of sustainability than in the past.
But also for a policy that after 16 years Angela Merkel does not continue to practice, but shows people a credible future perspective and reunites a deeply divided society, also due to the Corona measures.
The CSU must stand for a policy that does not constantly go it alone nationally, whether in migration, energy or industrial policy, and thus endanger the competitiveness of Germany as a location.
Söder taunts that he hopes that "not only Merz and Maaßen" will participate in Laschet's team ...
I cannot understand this stepping against Armin Laschet.
That only helps the Greens.
I am convinced that Armin Laschet and Friedrich Merz in the team can motivate bourgeois voters who are undecided.
Laschet governs the most populous federal state in Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia, many times better than all of its social democratic predecessors.
In any case, I believe that the Greens' candidate for chancellor is currently massively overestimated and Laschet is rather underestimated.
Nevertheless: in the end, the Union will only be able to govern with the Greens, if at all.
We'll see.
But if Markus Söder is already laying the red carpet for the Greens, he is unnecessarily increasing the price in possible coalition negotiations.
Understand this strategy if you want.
In any case, I don't understand them. "
Interview: Georg Anastasiadis