Söder warns Union against loss of power

Six weeks before the federal election, CSU chairman Markus Söder has warned the CDU/CSU against losing power. "There is now a very great danger that there could be a majority beyond the Union. That must be clear to everyone. The leadership of a federal government by the Union, what the majority wants, that is at risk," Söder said Sunday evening in the Bild program "The right questions."

"You can't say that everything is going perfectly. We already have to roll up our sleeves," the Bavarian premier added, referring to current polls. According to the latest survey by the Insa polling company for Bild am Sonntag, a coalition of the SPD, Greens and FDP would currently have a majority. The reason is that the SPD gained two percentage points to 20 percent. According to the survey, the CDU/CSU coalition would currently have 25 percent. In other polls, too, the CDU/CSU had recently lost ground, while the SPD gained.

Söder called on the CDU/CSU to take a tougher campaign course against its current coalition partner. There should be "no false caution toward the SPD" in the current starting position, he said.

"Greens no longer the decisive opponent"

In the current political situation, he said, the Greens are no longer the decisive opponent in the fight for the chancellorship. Söder added that he considers the likelihood of a government led by the Greens to be "very, very low." In his view, they would also leave the chancellorship to the SPD if necessary, "just to slow down the CDU/CSU.

Other Union politicians also warned that the election campaign must pick up speed. "To ensure that a government cannot be formed against the CDU/CSU, a clear positioning in terms of content and a clear profile is necessary in the final weeks of the election campaign," Hamburg CDU state chairman Christoph Ploß told the Rheinische Post on Monday. "The differences to other parties must be clearly visible - otherwise Germany will wake up on election night with a red-red-green alliance."

Federal Education Minister Anja Karliczek (CDU) also spoke of a wake-up call for everyone in the Union. "We all need to step it up a notch now," she told the newspaper. Among other things, she said, the CDU/CSU needs a clear roadmap for more climate protection.

Image by Josef A. Preiselbauer