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Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU)
Photo: Robert Michael / dpa
Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) has been criticized in his own state association for his statements on Russia.
A few days ago he opposed the line of the CDU federal leader Friedrich Merz in the CDU presidium.
He said there that he shared the concerns that several celebrities around Alice Schwarzer had formulated in a letter to Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD).
The positions on Russia represented there "do not reflect the majority of published opinions, but definitely the majority opinion of society, including mine," Kretschmer said, according to those present.
Most recently, he had been critical of a possible oil embargo against Russia.
"I think now is the time to take a closer look: Who is really harmed?" said the prime minister during a visit to Brussels.
Majority in Dresden for Merz course
There is now considerable criticism of the course at the base of the Saxon Union, for example among district chairmen.
The Dresden district executive asked its members about Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.
"Our state chairman and prime minister" has experienced controversial reactions, wrote the Dresden district chairman and member of the Bundestag Markus Reichel in an email to the members of the survey.
SPIEGEL has a multi-page document evaluating the results.
51 percent of those who took part in the survey stated that they "completely agreed" that Ukraine should be supplied with heavy weapons by the European Union and NATO.
13 percent “rather agree”.
61 percent "completely agreed" that the Federal Republic should maintain the sanctions against Russia until the territorial integrity of Ukraine is secured.
More than 80 percent support the admission of Finland and Sweden to NATO.
Spicy: 62 percent stated that they found the course of party and parliamentary group leader Merz correct.
This result is probably to be understood as a clear lack of understanding of Kretschmer's course.
In total, more than 250 members took part in the survey, more than ever before, according to the evaluation.
"Very difficult to support him"
Attached to the document are the votes of the members who were able to make freely formulated statements.
It says, for example, that the Prime Minister should declare his views on the subject as his "own opinion".
His positions are "more than incomprehensible".
"Mr. Kretschmer is making it very difficult to support him," said one member.
Or also: "Our Prime Minister remains a Putin understander." He should remain silent on the subject.
There is also discord in Leipzig.
In a closed group on Facebook called the "Saxon Union," a discussion broke out, as can be seen from the available news reports.
The Leipzig local politician Ansbert Maciejewski, for example, was indignant about the prime minister: »I think enough has been done in Putin's direction.
At some point it will be too much,” he writes.
He wanted to know whether the opinion of the state chairman and prime minister was also the opinion of the state executive board.
A Leipzig CDU politician says he hopes that Kretschmer's quotes never came up in the presidium meeting.
Others demonstratively share photos of Merz with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The statements in the Facebook groups and the survey in Dresden are not representative, but they do show that there is clear contradiction in the state association.
A survey by the opinion research institute Civey showed that the majority of the Saxon population opposes the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine.
