In view of the AfD’s electoral successes, there is a need to speak out. How could it be that the right-wing populists in Bavaria won 14.6 percent and became the third strongest force behind the CSU and the Free Voters? Things look even bleaker in Hesse. There the AfD managed to jump to 18.4 percent. With the best result in a state election in the west, it became the second strongest force in the state. At the tried-and-tested “Sunday regulars’ table” on Bavarian Radio, presenter Hans Werner Kilz and his guests tried to analyze the election results on Sunday evening.
One of the guests over beer and pretzels at the Brunnerwirt was Uli Hoeneß, honorary president of FC Bayern, member of the supervisory board and member of the transfer task force, which was pretty busy at the end of the summer after its masterpiece, the signing of English superstar Harry Kane. The task force neither managed to sign a defensive midfielder, nor did they manage to bring a successor to the departed defender Benjamin Pavard to Munich in the last few meters.
But, as I said, FC Bayern’s transfer policy was not the issue, but rather the AfD’s electoral successes. And you could have guessed it: Uli Hoeneß had the right explanations ready. The 71-year-old clearly sees the reasons for the AfD’s rise in Berlin. According to Hoeneß, traffic light politics are to blame for everything, and especially the Greens. With his explanation, Hoeneß followed a view that many people in Germany probably share.
Right at the beginning of the show, Hoeneß presented his view of things. “If the government worked to some extent, the AfD’s shares would be halved,” Hoeneß was certain. Eventually he became more precise. The core of the problem is therefore the Eco Party: “The Greens were the AfD’s best electoral helper with their arguments,” said Hoeneß. “Shut down nuclear power!” How could that be: “Nobody understands that,” Hoeneß fumed. Hoeneß does not dispute host Kilz’s suggestion that it was Chancellor Angela Merkel who decided to leave. He is concerned with the remaining three nuclear power plants that were recently shut down.
Hoeneß ignored another counterargument from Anja Kohl, ARD stock market journalist and regular guest on the show, that operating nuclear power plants was not worthwhile for the energy industry. And he made a point: If continued operations had been planned early on, it would at least have been profitable. What followed was a banter about the pros and cons of nuclear power and whether it was good or bad for the climate. For a short time, the discussants were far removed from the AfD topic. Kohl said clearly what she thought of Hoeneß’s arguments: “Kokolores!”
But then Hoeneß really got going. It’s not just about the “energy story”, it continues with migration and then “this paternalism” by the Greens. When Ursula Münch, political scientist and second regular guest at the “Stammtisch”, asked Ursula Münch exactly what paternalism he meant, Hoeneß brought out the strongest argumentative artillery:
“If Mr. Ödzemir (Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture, editor’s note) wants to tell me that I should no longer put sugar in my coffee.”
Münch: “I don’t think he said that.”
Hoeneß: “Yes, of course he said that.”
Münch: “Well, I didn’t read that.”
Hoeneß: “Of course, he tries to help people…”
Münch: “So it was about advertising…”
Hoeneß: “… to talk down meat consumption and sausage consumption completely. That’s not his job. Every citizen in a free country should decide for themselves.”
Münch: “I agree with them. But they now sound a bit like the former sausage manufacturer.”
Hoeneß: “No, not at all. I’m trying to find out why people voted for AfD. These people just won’t let it be dictated to them.”
It was a bit about the economy and everything in general. And then Hoeneß hit one out:
“In the beginning they did it well, Habeck and Baerbock. (…) After six months of how Habeck got the gas in Qatar and how we got through the difficult winter, I could have voted for the Greens.”
Münch reacted with surprise: “The Greens? You? Mr. Hoeneß! Man!”
But he continued undeterred: “Yes, I would have voted for the Greens. But today I am of the opinion that they have now proven that they have absolutely nothing to lose in a government. They are a great opposition party, (…) but The Greens are completely unsuitable in a government for an economic power like Germany.”
Source:ARD media library.
