After the verbal sparring match this week between Schleswig-Holstein’s Minister-President Daniel Günther (CDU) and CSU leader Markus Söder, the chair of the CSU’s parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Alexander Dobrindt, looked ahead to the possibility of a coalition with the Greens after the federal election. “What Mr. Günther now says, always gladly referred to as ‘Comrade Günther’ I think is not so essential for the decisions that need to be made” Dobrindt told the “Interview of the Week” of the ARD.
“There are states that place great value on their coalitions with the Greens being functional” the CSU politician explained. “And I’m not going to deny that in those states the coalitions can be functional. But what we envision as a political change are decisions that need to be made at the federal level and precisely not at the state level. That’s not comparable at all in terms of approach.”
Dobrindt rejected the concern of many Union supporters that CSU leader Markus Söder could disrupt the election campaign of the Union by stinging remarks against CDU leader and chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz. “That’s pure nonsense. There is as much unity between CDU and CSU as there hasn’t been in a long time.”
Dobrindt delivered sharp criticism of AfD chairwoman Alice Weidel, finding it “maximally disturbing” what Weidel discussed on the online platform X with US billionaire Elon Musk on Thursday evening. “What Frau Weidel is talking about in terms of historical nonsense is so brazen that one has to ask: Has she not understood, can she not put it in order, can she not deal with history, or is she trying to pander to a mass of people, quite far to the right, to incite a mood?”, criticized Dobrindt.
Weidel had claimed in the conversation with Musk that Adolf Hitler was a “communist, socialist type” and that the National Socialists, “as the word says”, were socialists in the Third Reich.
The portal “History instead of Myths”, run by the Historical Institute of the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, categorizes the myth of the “left National Socialists” as a historical revisionist interpretation of the NS regime. The historical National Socialism was fundamentally anti-communist. Renowned historians like Timothy Snyder and Richard Evans agree that the term “National Socialism” was a deliberately misleading name to win the sympathies of the workers. Communists and Social Democrats were among the first groups to be rounded up in camps by the SA.