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Less than 30 percent in the latest polls - the Union is facing a historic election bankruptcy.
Accordingly, Markus Söder was combative at the CSU party conference in Nuremberg.
Markus Söder, chairman of the CSU:
"We don't want a left-wing slide in Germany and for all journalists to take notes: We want Armin Laschet as chancellor instead of Olaf Scholz or Annalena Baerbock, dear friends."
Anna Clauss, DER SPIEGEL:
»Markus Söder has declared the election campaign to be a clear directional decision in the last few meters: a bourgeois coalition on the one hand or a left-wing slide on the other.
Of course he made an effort to warn against this left slide and talked a lot about his political opponent, about Anton Hofreiter's hair, a cheap laugh that was very well received by the delegates. "
Markus Söder, chairman of the CSU:
"And Anton Hofreiter, who has vehemently refused for years to accept the successful achievements of the Bavarian hairdressing trade, dear friends."
Anna Clauß:
“And about Kevin Kühnert, who wants to expropriate BMW, the FDP and the Free Voters, who would stand for votes that were given away.
It was all very well received.
But it also shows that if you need to talk more about your opponent than about yourself, that doesn't necessarily show your own strength in terms of content. "
Gender also found a place in his more than an hour-long speech.
Markus Söder, chairman of the CSU:
“In the end, everyone has to decide for themselves what to say.
We cannot expose any coercion or sanctions for it.
I've picked out a few examples of where gendering is already taking place and where gendering can still lead.
The television reports: The Islamists are moving more and more into Afghan cities. "
Anna Clauß, DER SPIEGEL:
“You also notice how unimaginatively and desperately the CSU is now looking for a topic for the election campaign because Marus Söder spoke extensively about gendering for the first time in this election campaign, something that has never been done before. And now he has suddenly warned that the Greens are supposedly in favor of re-education. And he said: We are a free state and not a re-education state. That led to standing ovations, but it is nowhere in the Green election manifesto that you now have to say that you have to be the shooter kings in the future: the most accurate man. That's funny, but ultimately rubbish. Anyone who still needs to mobilize their own voters with such pseudo-ideas has actually earned the tough opposition bench. "
Markus Söder, chairman of the CSU:
»Bavaria is a great country, the CSU is a great party. So let's show what we're made of. Let's fight together, let's stick together. The countdown is running. Strengthen Bavaria, save Germany from the left, dear friends, I'll tell you one thing: The CSU is best when things get serious. The left haven't won yet. Watch out, don't be so confident. We'll catch you in the last few meters. Let us fight for it, thank you very much, all the best, God's blessing for our country. "
Anna Clauss, DER SPIEGEL:
“In any case, one cannot blame the CSU and Markus Söder for not having tried everything in the last few meters. So they are all wearing battle suits here. The only question is whether that will be transported. Because normally the Union does not win elections at party conferences, but in Bavaria in the beer tent, and they have been closed for two years due to Corona. The party risks losing the authority to interpret the regulars' tables here. That is the much bigger problem and also one that they could not make up for now, not even with a party congress, however perfectly organized. "