"Substance instead of survey politics": Party Vice Weber demands that the CSU should take more care of foreign policy

Created: 03/07/2022, 07:42

By: Christian Deutschländer, Georg Anastasiadis

"We have to give up naivety": CSU Vice President Manfred Weber (49).

© picture alliance/dpa

With the attack on Ukraine, the world situation changed dramatically.

CSU Vice Manfred Weber calls on his party to take more care of foreign policy again.

Weber will be officially nominated by the CSU leadership on Monday to lead the conservative party family EPP in Europe.

We spoke to Niederbayern (49) on Sunday.

Mr. Weber, give us a helping hand.

War has been going on in Ukraine for eleven days, but little has been heard from the otherwise eloquent CSU.

Are we wrong?

The CSU board of directors will make clear decisions on the current crisis today, ram in pegs.

We could certainly have done that a week ago.

The CSU must regain a stronger profile in international politics.

Angela Merkel will no longer relieve us of this task.

We must and will be more present: give up naivety, formulate basic convictions in foreign policy and stand up for them, no matter where the wind blows from.

The war caught the often pro-Russian CSU on the wrong foot.

A few weeks ago, CSU boss Söder even demanded the release of the Baltic Sea pipeline.

Unwise?

A few weeks ago, the entire West was still living in a different world.

But anyone who wanted to see it could see it: we are dealing with an aggressive Russian leadership.

In 2014, when Putin occupied Crimea and used military force to break international law, I called for tougher sanctions at the Political Ash Wednesday.

At that time, by the way, the Russian ambassador was in the audience.

Specifically: should we stop our gas and oil imports from Russia?

I fear the brutality of the war will increase over the next few days.

Ukrainians are fighting our struggle for freedom and democracy.

Against this background: If the war escalates further, we must become independent of Russia's energy.

We can replace oil and coal in particular with other partners.

According to studies, we are talking about 660 million euros that we Europeans spend every day – every day!

– transfer to Russia for energy supplies.

We should pull the ripcord if necessary.

Cutting the gas lines would then be the next option.

Do you support Söder's initiative to let the nuclear reactors run for three to five years longer

We live in a new world, we have to rethink everything.

Europe needs to make more use of its own gas reserves.

We should think about allowing nuclear power plants in Europe to run temporarily.

And we have to deal with the food supply.

With Russia and Ukraine, two of the largest agricultural producers in the world are largely absent.

We should discuss whether we can afford to set aside land in Bavaria in such a situation.

Strauss and Stoiber were always European politicians.

Seehofer hardly, Söder almost not at all.

Would it be different if he got a few nice selfies on Instagram?

(smiles) Social media is part of our business, I do that, Markus Söder does that.

The key point is: Do people feel that we have substance?

Do you see a basic orientation of the CSU?

People are thoughtful, worried.

They want orientation, honesty and conviction from politicians.

I am convinced that our CSU approach must be more European.

Strauss spoke of a European army and European identity.

I want to complement that with European sovereignty: energy, food.

The CSU will nominate you today as chairperson of the European people's parties.

Is the new division of labor: CSU boss Söder plows Wunsiedel, EPP boss Weber the world?

We do this together.

We want to show the team that convinces people.

One thing is clear: anyone who wants to lead the largest family of parties in Europe and at the same time leads the largest parliamentary group in parliament stands for the foreign policy claims of the CSU.

That means: appearing profiled, convincing, not making politics after surveys.

That's my political style.

For me, by the way, this is also a conclusion to 2019, my failed candidacy for Commission President and the damage that Europe's democracy suffered in the back room at the time.

I'm fully there, I want to take the lead and keep fighting for a democratic EU.

CDU leader Merz has reasoned that Putin's attacks on Ukrainian nuclear reactors could endanger Europe's security and trigger the alliance.

What did you think?

Technically, this is correctly described.

But we should make it clear: the NATO partners must avoid anything to give Russia an excuse for further escalation.

It's not a NATO conflict.

Are you afraid this will degenerate into a nuclear war, or is that an exaggeration?

Putin dreams of a Greater Russian Empire.

A military escalation cannot be in his interest.

In this respect, we should now be determined, united, but also prudent.

One of my main concerns at the moment is the refugee situation that we are facing.

In the first ten days of this war, more people arrived in the EU than in the whole of 2015. This is also a great challenge for us.

A CSU minister, of all people, abolished conscription.

Was that a mistake that needs to be corrected?

Every era has its answers.

At that time we had extreme military justice, an intolerable situation.

However, I believe that we should not rule out general compulsory military service forever today.

That could be part of the CSU program and our new policy.

It is not effective in the short term.

Interview: Georg Anastasiadis, Christian Deutschländer