by Thorsten Koch, MA, PgDip

The CSU Group Leader in the German Bundestag, Alexander Dobrindt, has called for a “firewall” to be put up with regard to the Green Party. In the most recent state elections, Union voters switched to the eco-party, said Dobrindt in a meeting of the CSU board. One must therefore make the differences in politics clearer, he pointed out.

Meanwhile, Armin Laschet, the chairman of the CDU, has called on members and officials of his party to engage in a strong joint effort before the Bundestag election campaign begins. “We have to fight!” he stressed in a board meeting of the CDU. Laschet indirectly warned of a so-called “traffic light coalition” at the federal level between the SPD, the Greens, and the FDP. For his part, Laschet criticized the fact that some MPs had triggered an affair over the procurement of medical masks.

Laschet called on the SPD candidate for Chancellor, Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, to take care of his department first, because it was important for the Federal Government to manage affairs sovereignly for another six months. Laschet accused Scholz of false promises. Scholz had, for instance, announced the arrival of ten million doses of vaccine in the coming weeks. This has plunged the German citizens into uncertainty, Laschet criticized. In addition, Scholz had played down the fact that the financial supervisory authority, under his auspices, had not properly done its job in the Bafin affair, the President of the CDU pointed out.

Both Laschet and Söder emphasized that an election victory for the Union parties in the Bundestag election was not yet fully certain. The SPD is currently behind the Greens in surveys. The Greens would therefore have some right to the position of future Chancellor, if there were a traffic light coalition and in the hypothetical event that there were Federal Elections at this time. The Greens, on the other hand, identified a traffic light coalition as one option they are considering. However, it is still too early for a debate, the Greens said.

FDP Federal Chairman Christian Lindner said that political goals are crucial. The Greens at federal level strove to the left, Lindner added. On the other hand, he praised the realism of the Greens in the state of Baden-Württemberg.

SPD Federal Chairman Norbert Walter-Borjahns also mentioned that he and his party wanted to enforce goals. Concerning the controversial tax on the rich, which the SPD proposed, for example, “the whole package” is important, he said. The SPD had not made any mistakes during the whole of the Corona policies, Walter-Borjahns said. His co-chair, Saskia Esken, meanwhile expressed her hope that Scholz might “take charge in forming a government”. Esken also spoke of a “progressive” Federal Government envisioned among the SPD.