Söder's Secretary General: A new Huber for the CSU

Created: 05/07/2022, 09:19 am

By: Mike Schier

Markus Söder (right) and Martin Huber go together to the meeting of the CSU party executive.

Huber is the new Secretary General of the CSU.

© Peter Kneffel/dpa

Markus Söder managed this surprise: Martin Huber from the district of Altötting becomes the new general of the CSU.

So far, the deputy was only known to insiders.

Munich – Last week Martin Huber stood at the lectern of the state parliament.

He replied to SPD faction leader Florian von Brunn, who had presented a law to promote social climate protection.

“Where is social justice in the SPD when you can do something concrete for it?” he asked, looking at the traffic lights in Berlin.

The only things Olaf Scholz can keep are tally lists and diaries.

No rhetorical fireworks, but at least: clear edge.

The government bench behind him was deserted, but someone must have asked Markus Söder about this speech.

In any case, on Friday the CSU boss praised the militant appearance of the member of parliament – ​​and immediately made him CSU general secretary.

CSU: Martin Huber is a big surprise as Secretary General

So ends a very bad week for the CSU with a big surprise.

Huber played virtually no role in the speculation about the successor to the resigned Stephan Mayer.

Especially since it was always said internally that you needed someone with experience - strategically, in terms of content, suitable for talk shows.

The 44-year-old Huber was only commissioned by Söder in February to work out the new basic program together with his colleague Gerhard Hopp.

"Smart young people" are, said the party leader, a little grandfatherly.

Now Huber has to prove his whistle in the front row.

After all, the native of Mühldorf, who joined the CSU at the age of 16, is very familiar with the state leadership.

As a working student he worked in the Franz-Josef-Strauß-Haus, later full-time.

Party leader Erwin Huber made him his personal advisor.

At the time, he was struck by his inventiveness and commitment, says Erwin Huber today about the young namesake.

A thoughtful, sensitive type.

"Not as big a hit as old Huber," says Erwin and laughs.

Really remarkable: Horst Seehofer, otherwise God knows not a fan of his predecessor's decisions, took over the young man.

Martin Huber stayed by Seehofer's side for five years - until he entered the state parliament himself in 2013.

Martin Huber says it's about "reviving" the CSU

At his presentation on Friday, Huber says what one says on such occasions.

"Great Honour", "Devotion" and "Passion".

But if you listen carefully, you will also recognize the distortions that need to be worked on.

It's about "reviving" the party.

After the loss of power in Berlin, one is in a "phase where we can reposition and sort ourselves".

The findings of his master’s thesis could help Huber: “Bundestag election campaigns of the CDU/CSU as opposition parties”.

You have to involve the grassroots more, he says, referring to Corona.

"We have big ruptures in society." Especially in the south of the Free State there are still serious upheavals due to the long, strict Corona policy.

Here, where the CSU was often well over 50 percent, skepticism about vaccination is particularly pronounced.

In order to achieve more than the 38 percent currently measured in polls in the state elections next autumn, the CSU has to do a lot of grassroots work.

This is one of the reasons why it was so important to Söder that the new Secretary General also came from this area.

Huber is considered a proven environmental politician.

After the state elections in 2018, he was traded as a minister - but the department fell to the free voters.

Some doubt whether he is a generalist enough to be Secretary General.

In general, Minister of Agriculture Michaela Kaniber was expected

In general, Minister of Agriculture Michaela Kaniber was expected, but she not only has friends in the Upper Bavarian CSU.

The relationship with Ilse Aigner in particular is considered difficult.

The party noticed attentively that Aigner announced that it did not necessarily have to be a woman Secretary General.

Söder is said to have been quite angry about such public advice.

Ultimately, he decided differently because he did not want to reshuffle the cabinet again.

A new Minister of Agriculture was not in sight.

In addition, the state parliament could have discussed the Mayer scandal again.

As it is, however, the opposition observes the castling rather calmly.

"Anyone who expects this renewed change of personnel to change Bavarian politics has not understood Markus Söder," says Green Party leader Ludwig Hartmann.

"In Söder's ego system, there are only those who take orders." And his FDP colleague Martin Hagen jokes about Huber's loyal services, of all things, for Söder's arch-enemy Horst Seehofer.

"That's what you call the irony of history."