CSU: Letter to the editor affair causes explosives in Peißenberg

Created: 10/25/2022, 2:14 p.m

By: Bernhard Jepsen

This is the letter to the editor that caused trouble.

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A letter to the editor from the ranks of the Peißenberg CSU was intended to protect Mayor Frank Zellner from his critics in the debate about the central hospital.

But the action became a boomerang for the party.

In any case, the local association, which Zellner leads, has serious problems with the letter.

Peißenberg - "Improved climate in the market town council": That was the title of a letter to the editor signed by Patricia Punzet, spokeswoman for the CSU/non-party parliamentary group, and published by the local newspaper last week.

But since then there can be no more talk of an “improved climate” in the board.

In the market council, free voters, the citizens' association, the Greens and former mayor Manuela Vanni (Peißenberger Liste) expressed their displeasure with the wording of the letter to the editor - and with clear words.

In the September meeting of the market council, Frank Zellner was criticized.

The head of the town hall, it was said, had not advertised enough or not at all for Peißenberg as the location of a possible central hospital in the district (we reported).

Among others, Cornelia Wutz (citizens' association; BV), Manuela Vanni as well as Walter Wurzinger and Jürgen Forstner (both free voters) had spoken.

Her rhetoric was harsh and unequivocal, but remained factual.

While his own parliamentary group was silent in the debate, Zellner only received support from Peter Blome (SPD).

The speechlessness of their own group has apparently not been well received in the CSU local association.

"As a result, members approached the parliamentary group," reports Zellner when asked by the local newspaper.

The result was the letter to the editor, which greatly angered the political competition.

The anger in the most recent market council meeting was programmed.

The reply to the letter to the editor was opened by Stefan Rießenberger: "I will not let such untruths stand," said the BV parliamentary group spokesman Patricia Punzet directly - as did Walter Wurzinger: "Please explain this letter to the editor to me.

This is a bottomless cheek.

Why didn't you open your mouth during the meeting?” Punzet reacted visibly contritely: The aim of the letter to the editor was actually only “to criticize the way of communication – it wasn't about more than that”.

Cornelia Wutz, meanwhile, described it as "very questionable" when free expressions of opinion were characterized as "embarrassing" and "out of date" in a letter to the editor: "You have to be careful there.

Constructive discussions are part of democracy and I didn't insult anyone." Wutz emphasized that she did not want to "put herself in the limelight" - as the critics alleged in the letter to the editor - but that she only questioned what she believed to be the passive behavior of the mayor when it came to the central hospital .

“I will continue as before and give my opinion.

That's what I was elected for and you have to live with that," Wutz said in the direction of the CSU/non-party.

Matthias Bichlmayr (Greens) also commented on the letter to the editor as "quite unfortunate" and "in itself not conducive to the climate in the market council".

Bichlmayr also complained about the indirect criticism of Manuela Vanni: "That's a shot backwards." The former mayor reacted accordingly: "The letter to the editor hit me personally.

I have to be honest," says Vanni.

It finally got heated when Christian Quecke (CSU/non-party) said that municipal council debates could not only be held in the committee itself, but that letters to the editor could also be used as a medium.

Annette Daiber (Greens) in turn described the statement as "crass" ("We shouldn't have our disputes in public, but in the market council") and Jürgen Forstner as "madness and democratic cheek": "That's for a body like the municipal council unworthy.

I've never heard such shit."

So much for the public market council meeting.

But there was an aftermath.

In the non-public part, Patricia Punzet distanced herself from the letter to the editor and apologized to the council colleagues concerned.

The confirmed punch to the local newspaper.

When asked whether she was the intellectual author of the letter to the editor, the group spokeswoman did not answer directly, but with little room for interpretation: "I have to say yes now.

My signature is underneath, then I have to be responsible for it.” Punzet spoke of a “mistake” that will not happen to her again.

Vanni, Wutz, Rießenberger, Wurzinger and Forstner would have accepted their apologies: "I got along well with everyone," said Punzet.

Is that the end of the matter?

Hardly likely.

The letter to the editor, which according to reports was not known to all members of the CSU/non-party parliamentary group beforehand, raises several questions - first: if not Punzet, then who is the intellectual author?

Frank Zellner told the local newspaper that he was aware of the wording.

In retrospect, the “wording” was to be rated as unfortunate: “I would not have chosen it that way.

I do not endorse the choice of words.”

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But why didn't Zellner, as head of the local association, prevent the publication?

The focus, according to Zellner, was placed on the support of his person - which was missing from his own municipal councils in the debate about the "central hospital".

"It's a learning process for the parliamentary group to take part in the meetings in the future," says Zellner.

The effect of the letter to the editor was “not foreseen” in the form.

Punzet was not put under pressure by the local association to sign the letter to the editor.

The head of the town hall leaves the central question of authorship unanswered: “It is a political group that operates in the local association.

But I will not name the names publicly.”