Green trouble before the state elections in Bavaria: Katharina Schulze is not allowed to inherit Söder

Created: 05/28/2022, 09:33

By: Mike Schier

Cutting off old habits: Green party leader Katharina Schulze (36) completed a small internship in the Munich "Pony Club".

©Oliver Bodmer

Katharina Schulze is probably the best-known opposition politician in the Bavarian state parliament: But if there is an election in 2023, the leader of the Greens parliamentary group should not become prime minister.

Munich – On Friday, Katharina Schulze met some really young people.

The Green faction leader, now 36 years old, tried her hand at hairdressing in the Munich Pony Club.

Above all, however, she spoke to the trainees at the Pony Club Academy.

The Greens have recognized the shortage of skilled workers as a major issue.

Good offspring is hard to come by.

But who is actually young?

Or too young?

This is currently an important question in state politics.

In autumn 2023, Bavaria will elect a new state parliament, the parties are working on their lists behind the scenes, and the question of the top candidates also arises.

A problem arises for Schulze and the Greens: the power option.

Although Schulze will be in parliament for ten years next year and has led her parliamentary group since 2017, she is not allowed to become prime minister.

The older gentlemen who wrote the Bavarian constitution in 1946 had set a minimum age of 40, which still applies today.

Katharina Schulze in Bavaria: debate about the age limit for prime ministerial office

In the meantime, however, the critical voices are increasing - not only from Schulze, who of course finds this "completely absurd".

Emmanuel Macron became French President at the age of 39, she says.

In Austria, Sebastian Kurz was elected Chancellor at the age of 31.

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin is also a few months younger than Schulze.

"In my opinion, the regulation in Art. 44 Para. 2 of the Bavarian Constitution is definitely no longer up to date - if it ever was," says Ursula Münch, director of the Academy for Political Education in Tutzing.

The political scientist suspects that the introduction of the relatively high age limit may have had something to do with the fact that the constitutional deliberations in 1946 initially considered introducing the office of a state president.

"Without being able to prove it, I would assume that the fathers of the constitution also laid down the age limit with a view to the unrealized office of a state president," says the professor.

As a reminder: there is no age limit for the chancellor in the federal government, but the federal president must be at least 40 – the same minimum age as in Bavaria.

In any case, Münch says: "I don't think that age limits, both lower and higher, are up to date." First, the General Equal Treatment Act has been in force since 2006, which implements the EU directives against discrimination.

On the other hand, with the increasing personalization of politics, the top candidates are more and more in focus anyway.

One could certainly trust the voters “to decide whether someone seems to be too young or too old for the position”.

Katharina Schulze on Söder successor course?

Nothing works without the CSU

But the hurdles to changing the constitution are high.

First you need a two-thirds majority in parliament, then the people's approval for a decision.

Nothing works without the CSU.

And of course, shortly before the election, she has little reason to pave the way for the possible Green Party candidate in the upcoming state elections in Bavaria.

The coalition partner, on the other hand, is surprisingly willing to talk.

"I am in favor of daring more democracy, abolishing upper and lower age limits and letting people decide for themselves who represents them," says Fabian Mehring, leader of the Freie Wahler parliamentary group and only 33 years old himself.

The FW have been fighting for a long time to abolish the upper limit for district administrators and mayors of 67 years.

There is no official group line on the minimum age for prime ministers.

However, Mehring believes that his point of view is capable of winning a majority.

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Katharina Schulze, the Greens and the minimum age - "The regulation is now completely out of date"

The SPD and FDP have long been in favor of abolishing the border, something that only exists in Baden-Württemberg.

The minimum age there is 35. "The regulation is now completely out of date," says FDP leader Martin Hagen, himself just 40, from whom the beautiful sentence comes: "There are many reasons against Katharina Schulze as Prime Minister speak, but age is not one of them. ”In the past few months, she has also made a name for herself because she strongly criticized Markus Söder, among other things because of the Bavarian climate policy and the handling of the corona pandemic.

Incidentally, the Greens recently started an attempt in Parliament to abolish the age limit.

However, it also provides for a lowering of the voting age to 16.

The second reading is planned before the summer break.

Initial consultations do not indicate a majority.

In autumn 2021, Katharina Schulze had to face allegations of informers during a TV talk.