Söder names "the key question" for chancellor candidacy
It is still unclear who will be the CDU/CSU's candidate for chancellor in the next general election. CSU leader Söder rules out a candidacy. In the event of an early election, CDU leader Merz would "certainly be the favorite", he says.
In the debate about the right candidate for Chancellor of the CDU/CSU, CSU leader Markus Söder has formulated the central criterion that he believes the candidate must fulfill. "The key question for the chancellor candidacy is: Who can bundle the Union's votes most strongly? The CDU must make a decision based on this," Söder told Stern magazine.
"We are not running for a vacation job here. It's about making Germany fit," said Söder when asked whether the Federal Constitutional Court's budget ruling makes being chancellor a kind of hellish job. "It's like a penalty shoot-out: Who can you trust to take the last penalty kick? That's what politicians have to be made of - regardless of whether they are prime minister or want to become chancellor."
In the event of an early election, CDU leader Friedrich Merz would "certainly be the favorite", said Söder. He denied his own interest in standing for the CDU/CSU in the next general election. "An option as a candidate for chancellor is only offered to a CSU chairman once in a lifetime." He described the cooperation with Merz as "really good". Of the three CDU chairmen he had experienced as CSU leader, Merz was the one with the most in common.
Söder distances himself from the plumber
Merz has said several times over the course of the year that the CDU/CSU's candidacy for chancellor will be decided in late summer 2024. However, it is still unclear whether this means before or after the state elections in Brandenburg, Thuringia and Saxony. The elections will take place in September.
Söder, however, distanced himself from the CDU leader's plumber slogan. "Plumber is a very respectable profession," he said. "And because I'm a big Reinhard Mey fan, I've always really liked his song 'Ich bin Klempner von Beruf'." People expect a good plumber to "make sure that everything that was broken works again in the end. Sometimes you wait eagerly for him."
Merz had called Chancellor Olaf Scholz a "plumber of power" in the Bundestag and clearly meant this as an insult. Immediately afterwards, he said to Scholz: "You lack any idea of how this country should develop in the coming years." On ntv's "Frühstart" program, Merz later said that he had not meant to insult the plumbers with the comparison. "Well, plumbers no longer exist in this sense. Today they are called plant technicians and have many other job titles. That's exactly what was meant. He turns small screws, but he is not able to produce the whole structure," said Merz. The comments had also caused irritation within the CDU/CSU.
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Olaf Scholz, currently serving as Chancellor, has been referred to as a "plumber of power" by CDU leader Friedrich Merz, which Merz intended as an insult. Söder, the CSU leader, has distanced himself from Merz's plumber slogan, highlighting the respect he has for plumbers and Reinhard Mey's song "Ich bin Klempner von Beruf." Despite Merz's statement that the CDU/CSU's chancellor candidacy decision will likely be made in late summer 2024, Markus Söder, the CSU leader, has not ruled out the possibility of CDU leader Friedrich Merz being the favorite candidate for an early election.
Source: www.ntv.de
