Almost eight months before the state elections in Bavaria and Hesse, the political parties on Ash Wednesday met with reproaches, criticism and ridicule. In particular, CSU boss Markus Söder attacked in front of around 4,000 CSU supporters in Passau.
He sharply attacked the federal government and the traffic light and even suggested replacing Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) if she did not act on migration policy. The Greens, FDP and SPD, on the other hand, attacked the CSU and especially the Bavarian Prime Minister head-on. In view of the war in Ukraine, however, many speakers also chose serious tones.
In her speech in Landshut, Green Party leader Ricarda Lang strictly rejected a unilateral Russian dictated peace to end the war in Ukraine. “What kind of peace would that be, where a war criminal gets away with a war of aggression that violates international law?” she said. FDP leader Christian Linder said in Dingolfing: “It’s about the self-determination of this country on the way to the future for the Ukrainians. But the peace and freedom order of the 21st century is also being fought for there. That’s why we belong on the side Of Ukraine.”
Klingbeil: Diplomacy and military strength belong together
SPD leader Lars Klingbeil, who did not appear in Lower Bavaria but in Frankfurt, defended Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s course. He emphasized that diplomacy and military strength should not be played off against each other. “For us, both belong together.” At the same time he found clear words for Putin – he would “go down in history as a war criminal”. Left leader Janine Wissler called for negotiations: working for diplomacy is not taking sides with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In his speech, Lindner also went to court with his own traffic light partners and called on them to be frugal and to refrain from further tax increase debates: “If you are looking for something for Lent that you can do without – my suggestion is: do without until Easter the daily demand for tax increases.”
Söder said in Passau that if Faeser doesn’t soon make suggestions about how the influx of migrants will be controlled, how the municipalities will be relieved and how they can get more money, “then she will be the next Mrs. Lambrecht in Scholz’s cabinet”. Faeser is the top candidate in the Hessen elections. Your SPD party colleague Christine Lambrecht had to resign as defense minister in January. “And it would also be good for the chancellor if he finally took care of these problems in Germany himself and didn’t just travel the world,” said the CSU chairman to Olaf Scholz.
It was the first “real” political Ash Wednesday in three years. In 2022 he failed because of the start of the Russian war against Ukraine. In the 2021 federal election year, there was only a slimmed-down digital version due to the corona pandemic.
