As of: February 13, 2024, 5:26 a.m
By: Christian Deutschländer
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Political Ash Wednesday of the CSU in the Dreiländerhalle Passau.
(Archive image 2023) © Peter Kneffel/dpa
CSU vice-president is adopting a different tone at political Ash Wednesday tomorrow - and wants to talk about the world situation.
Passau – It looked the same as always: the Dreiländerhalle decorated with pennants.
It smelled the same as always: of fish rolls and mid-morning beer.
It sounded like always: parade for the speakers to enter.
But then it became completely different than usual at Political Ash Wednesday in 2019. The CSU presented itself thoughtfully, profoundly and in terms of foreign policy.
“Speakers on mute,” headlined the irritated “Spiegel”.
And our newspaper wrote about the “rumbling break at the Passau regulars’ table”.
The rally in March 2019 was one of the quietest in the noisy CSU history, but was accompanied by a lot of applause at the end.
It looks as if the party leadership will repeat this concept tomorrow in Passau.
As in 2019, Manfred Weber, the leading CSU foreign policy expert, will again be one of the two main speakers (alongside Markus Söder).
In times of crises, wars and conflicts, he doesn't want to turn the nationally known rally into a show or riot, but instead wants to talk very seriously and in-depth about the world situation.
Weber wants to present “better concepts”.
The first expectation would be different.
The strongest support in Passau, where the CSU gathers its 100 percent support, would be for the sharpest attacks on the federal government.
That's exactly what Weber doesn't want.
“Further traffic light bashing will not bring any additional political success,” the 51-year-old from Lower Bavaria recently told our newspaper.
“We have to make it clear: we have better political concepts.”
Weber wants to talk about the big questions of the continent, about war and peace.
In Passau he wants to talk about his trip to Ukraine in January, about the minutes when Russian missiles hit Kiev and people died.
From his conversations, for example with the Amnesty activist who handed him a T-shirt: “Make Russia Pay,” let the Russians pay.
It was a plea to freeze Russian funds in Europe and use them to finance the defense and reconstruction of Ukraine, amounting to up to $300 billion.
Too serious for Passau?
Weber experienced in 2019 (and already in 2014, when he spoke about Crimea in Passau) that the “largest regulars' table in the world” received this well.
Political Ash Wednesday: Clear demarcation from the AfD
Attack?
There will be, but probably also different than expected.
The convinced European Weber wants to take on the Free Voters in the year of the European elections.
He is currently calculating how often their ministers appeared in Brussels.
Hubert Aiwanger (economics) came once in five years.
Thorsten Glauber (environment) apparently made it to Europe's capital zero times during the legislative period in which the “Green Deal” was being negotiated.
What Weber and especially Söder will intone is also a clear demarcation from the AfD.
That was also part of the concept in 2019.
Weber said that politics must be shaped from the center “and not by right-wing idiots”.
Söder, as CSU leader, threw a very powerful sentence towards AfD voters that made headlines across the country: “Go back and leave the Nazis in the party alone!”
The CSU boss will also have very, very harsh words about the AfD tomorrow and will probably talk more about the traffic lights than Weber.
Those around him say it will be “plain language and not wishy-washy.”
(Christian Deutschländer)