Change at the top of the CSU district association Unterallgäu

Rammingen / Unterallgäu - After the bankruptcies of the last two years, the Unterallgäu district association of the CSU finally wants to turn the trend. At the district representatives' meeting on Tuesday last week, some of the grievances were clearly addressed. Since last week, Martin Osterrieder has been responsible for remedying this at the district level. Benninger replaced Franz Josef Pschierer after his eight-year term as district chairman.

After Pschierer had welcomed the guests of honor and thought together with the more than 100 delegates of the two deceased CSU members Hermann Haisch and Hans Mayer, the chairman, who has been in office since June 2013, spoke about the major events of the past two years, which were not very glorious from the CSU's point of view: the Local elections in spring 2020 and the federal election a few weeks ago. “Both elections were not necessarily successful, we both lost,” explained Pschierer. A sum of causes was the decisive factor. In the district election, for example, Rainer Schaal was presented as a candidate with the best qualifications and qualifications. The presentation itself was then “unsuccessful”, which “maybe our mistake”, according to Pschierer. They also did not show themselves as a cohesive team.Other parties would have done better in the Unterallgäu. "I also take responsibility for this to a certain extent," said the outgoing district chairman self-critically. On the day of the local election, Schaal had won 25.6 percent of the votes in the district, in the runoff election against Alex Eder (Free Voters) only one in five people from Unterallgäu had chosen the CSU candidate.

Meanwhile, Pschierer rated the development in the district council as positive after the election - whereby he particularly praised parliamentary group chairman Andreas Tschugg: As a "moderator, integrator and idea generator" Tschugg does his job well, he also works closely and constructively with District Administrator Eder - including the issues of clinics -Development, savings bank merger, Corona, settlement policy, housing shortage, urban sprawl and the trade Pschierer specifically addressed in this context.

Two direct mandates

At the federal level, as is well known, the next bankruptcy followed a few weeks ago, which also left its mark in the Unterallgäu. After all: Alexander Engelhard (constituency Neu-Ulm) as well as MP Stephan Stracke (constituency Ostallgäu), who was also present in Rammingen, moved into the Bundestag by direct mandate for the CSU. Pschierer congratulated them, but added that he would have liked both of them to have government mandates. "But that looks different now," said Pschierer, referring to the exploratory talks in Berlin.

As with the district election, Pschierer warned against focusing the research on the cause only on the candidate (Armin Laschet) in the federal election. In the Unterallgäu, too, the election campaign could not be carried out as desired - due to the lack of events, among other things. "We had the speakers, but the marquees were missing," explained Pschierer. “You can't run an election campaign over the Internet, that's a mistake.” In addition, according to the Mindelheimer, the Union has spent too much time criticizing the election programs of other parties. And last but not least, the Free Voters would have caused a further division of the bourgeois camp and, as a result, a weakening of the Union.

The CSU has lost most of the over-60s and medium-sized businesses.

With the latter target group, Pschierer wants to initiate the turnaround himself: On November 6th, the retired state minister wants to be re-elected as state chairman of the SME Union.

"I want to do my part there to regain trust." And because there is a lot of work waiting there, he will no longer run as district chairman of the Unterallgäu CSU, said Pschierer.

Because of fatigue, frustration or health reasons, he does not give up the office, as he himself emphasized.

This is "the new one"

Only one written nomination was received for Pschierer's successor in office and no challenger spoke up on site either. Martin Osterrieder from Benningen was elected with 96 percent of the vote at the beginning of the evening “election marathon”, as he said. When he was introduced, the married father of three daughters had declared that club life and football in particular had shaped him. He stuck with music for a long time: Today the 52-year-old plays the saxophone with the Benningen band and also acts as a cashier. He had paved his career path by studying electrical engineering in Ulm. Osterrieder then worked as a software developer for five years before setting up freelance in this area.

But now he has to cut back on this profession: Osterrieder has been the full-time mayor of Benningen since 2020.

Previously (since November 2013) he had held this position on a voluntary basis.

He has also been a member of the district council since 2014 and the Benninger municipal council since 2002.

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Martin Osterrieder, here giving his inaugural speech, was elected the new chairman of the CSU district association with 96 percent of the vote.

© Tobisch

How Osterrieder wants to give the CSU Unterallgäu a new impetus as chairman? The “closer to people”, which the Christian Socials have taken as their motto, must be lived again more, one must reach the base again and listen, said Osterrieder. Some former party colleagues have "looked more at themselves" in recent years, criticized the new chairman - with which he was probably aiming primarily at grievances at the federal level. Osterrieder also pointed out that the regeneration process takes time. "The times of 50 plus X are over for now."

In his address, Member of the Bundestag, Stephan Stracke, also hoped for an early return to the old dominance. Now it is important to sharpen your own profile again and be back in shape by the state elections in autumn 2023. "It will be decisive how we start in the state parliament and that no government can be formed against us," said Stracke.

Like the newly elected member of the Bundestag, Health Minister Klaus Holetschek congratulated Osterrieder on the election: "You are one of the outstanding people in the Lower Allgäu and will bring the district association forward again," said Holetschek. The minister also campaigned for vaccination as the only way out of the corona pandemic and for better working conditions in the care sector. Corona would have shown that changes are needed - for example in terms of "excessive regulation" and bureaucracy. “It's time for change and new thinking. And that's where we want to be with the benchmark, ”says Holetschek.

The elections for the new district board then went almost noiselessly, as only one candidate was proposed for most offices.

It only became interesting for the five deputy chairpersons to be elected when the local association Buxheim had Martina Leipold nominated as the sixth candidate.

Bad luck for Leipold then: Just like Michaela Bahle-Schmid, she received the fifth most votes (53), but then got the short straw in the lottery.

This is the new CSU district executive:

• District chairman:

(Benningen)

• Deputy district chair:

(Bad Grönenbach),

(Markt Wald),

(Kettershausen),

(Kirchheim) and

(Bad Wörishofen)

• Treasurer:

(Ettringen)

• Secretary:

(Trunkelsberg)

• Digital officer:

(Bad Wörishofen)

• Cash auditor:

(Frechenrieden) and

(Dirlewang)