After the quarrels about the federal election, the CSU boss ducks his head.
There is rumbling at the grassroots level, the polls are around 32 percent.
Munich / Straubing - Markus Söder is at the lectern in the lecture hall, his subject sounds dangerous.
He talks about the joy of “igniting a bit”, the art of controlled explosion.
But, all clear, it's all about chemistry this time.
The Prime Minister opens the new teaching and research building for the chemists on the TU Straubing campus with a speech.
Ignitions and stink bombs in politics, Söder is keeping his hands off that Thursday.
There has been enough pounding around the CSU chairman in the past few days.
From many corners of the CDU, Söder opposes open anger about his behavior before and after the federal election.
In their own CSU, critics speak up as loudly as never before and complain about a lack of team play.
Bavaria's Junge Union, once its most loyal fan club, even in anger deleted the term “draft horse Markus Söder” from a statement, there is rumbling at the grassroots level, the polls are around 32 percent.
Markus Söder experiences a change in mood and is noticeably reluctant to make headline-grabbing appearances
Söder did not miss the change in mood. His preliminary reaction: he ducks his head. He is noticeably reluctant to make headline-grabbing appearances this week. Press conference after the cabinet meeting: delegated to the ministers. Parliament session: not attended. Speech at the Junge Union's Germany Day on Saturday: canceled. Compared to the extreme frequency of the election campaign months, it almost seems as if Söder has disappeared. You have to look for specialist appointments, like on October 14th in the chemistry room, to meet Söder; and there he almost completely dispenses with taunts and ridicule.
On the one hand, so it is said by his people, it is a return to everyday work in state politics.
Due to Corona and the election campaign, material work has built up there, and the coalition climate with the free voters has suffered.
Second, Söder will put a lot of energy into meetings with his own party over the next few weeks.
He is currently traveling in turn through the district boards of the CSU, listening to the grumbling in the mid-level staff.
This is wholeheartedly called “basic conferences”, and a series of meetings with the real grassroots, the active people at the local level, is to follow in the next two months.
Union: Söder cancels big speech among youngsters - anger at the CSU boss
Thirdly, Söder does not want to further heat up the mood in the CDU. With Armin Laschet's willingness to take his hat off, one goal should have been achieved. Risk: The next head that one could ask for in the Union is his. That is also why Söder canceled his big speech at the Junge Union for Saturday. Wherever the next generation of the CDU and CSU meet, where all the big players are invited, he would probably have met with some displeasure. It is noticeable: Antipodes like Daniel Günther on the left and Friedrich Merz on the right are in almost nothing in the CDU in terms of content, except currently in anger at Söder. Günther sardonically philosophizes about the verb “södern”. Merz calls the dealings in the Union "stylish, disrespectful and sometimes rowdy".
CSU boss Söder does not want to be told in the face.
At the same time, he currently has little leverage to turn decisions: not the search for a boss in the CDU, that is regulated by the party internally, and the formation of a coalition in Berlin is not, it is the turn of the traffic light parties.
So Söder prefers to stand at the desk in Straubing.
"Have fun with the experiments", he wishes, "may everything go well and nothing happens".
But he means the chemistry room.
(CD)