Sunday March 28, 2021
Söder sounds the alarm
“There is a mood of change in the country”
The Union’s soaring in the polls is over – it has been going downhill for weeks. In the meantime, it no longer seems impossible that the CDU and CSU will lose their position as the strongest force.
After the Union crashed in the polls, CSU boss Markus Söder warned of a “change in mood” in Germany. “The situation is very serious. The corona numbers are rising and the Union values are falling,” said the Bavarian Prime Minister of “Bild am Sonntag”. “There is a mood of change in the country.” CDU party vice Norbert Röttgen said: “The state elections were already a wake-up call, but now there is really an alarm”.
The Union must “show that it still has strength and ideas and is not exhausted and drained,” said Söder. “It takes a move now.” The Union no longer has a subscription to the chancellorship, he added.
In the so-called Sunday trend for the newspaper, the Union’s downward trend continued for the fourth week in a row. The CDU and CSU lost two percentage points compared to the previous week and now came to 25 percent. That is eleven percentage points less than seven weeks ago. In the ZDF “Politbarometer” on Friday, the Union had slipped seven points to 28 percent.
Röttgen told the “Augsburger Allgemeine” that the survey losses were “due to a massive loss of trust”. The entire party must now deal with the crisis together with CDU leader Armin Laschet. “That is not the chairman’s only problem.” With a view to the general election in six months, Röttgen added: “But time is running out.”
At the same time, Röttgen warned of time pressure on the question of the candidate for chancellor. The CDU / CSU should “not rush anything,” warned the CDU vice-chairman. “With actionism, we will not regain trust.” The fact that there is a possible applicant in Söder is not a problem. “I think we should be happy as the CDU that the CSU chairman and Bavarian Prime Minister is doing well in the polls,” said Röttgen. It is about which line-up the Union will have “the greatest chance of success in the autumn”.
CDU Federal Vice-President Thomas Strobl told Stuttgart newspapers: “The CDU in Germany would like our Federal Chairman Armin Laschet to become the Union’s candidate for Chancellor and, in the autumn, also to become Federal Chancellor.” He gained this impression from many conversations, said the Baden-Württemberg interior minister and state party leader. In view of the “difficult situation”, Strobl called on Laschet and Söder to answer the open leadership question in the Union quickly, “and not much later than Easter”.
.