After the attack in Munich, the chairman of the Christian Social Union (CSU) and the Bavarian Minister-President, Markus Söder, sharply criticized the refugee policy of the former Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Söder said to the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”: “It is clear: the phrase ‘We can do it’ did not work. The phrase must now be: We will change it. This includes that we quickly and consistently deport criminal offenders out of the country.”
Söder described the reactions of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) to the attack as “improper and unsettling”. The AfD is “the system enemy, who not only wants to destroy our democracy, but also the Union. It is forbidden to in any form cooperate, pact, or work together with the AfD.” Söder added: “Our firewall stands out of inner conviction.”
Regarding the accusations against Chancellor Scholz in the case of the Berlin Cultural Senator Joe Chialo (CDU), Söder said that Scholz was “now apparently losing his composure, nerves and control”. Scholz had made a campaign promise of respect three years ago, but now showed a disrespectfulness that was unworthy of a Chancellor. “This confirms the impression of the last weeks: he fails to leave with style” Söder added.
Söder was open to a grand coalition. The Social Democratic Party (SPD) would be different after the election, he said. “Even then, there are thick blocks with migration and the citizen’s allowance. But with the Greens, there is no stable majority in the Federal Council. This looks different with the SPD and their minister-presidents.” Moreover, the majority of the population believed that a stable majority was possible with the SPD. Additionally, it had been shown in times of the grand coalition that the voters of the Union and the SPD had often been similar, Söder said. “They are in the community garden, go to the shooting festival, or are normal hardworking employees like steelworkers, bus drivers, or nurses.” Both major parties were “not an elitist NGO team like the Greens, who are in part very detached” Söder said.
Söder spoke in favor of reactivating the three German nuclear power plants that were shut down most recently. These could be “reactivated quickly and with a manageable effort”, he said. “The energy companies reject this at the moment, but if the nuclear law were changed, the business model would be profitable. We should, however, also plan with new, modern mini-reactors like in America.” Söder said that the green hydrogen would have a hard time being economically viable. “Through the expansion of gas and oil drilling in the USA and possible new discoveries in the Arctic, fossil fuels will be cheaper for decades to come. It would be naive to believe that one can regulate everything with subsidies alone.” Therefore, in Germany, the storage of carbon dioxide in the underground (CCS) was necessary.
Looking at the disruptive politics of the Trump administration, Söder said that if one wanted to change something, one had to do it “with the affected people together and not just with chainsaws or sledgehammers”. Söder demanded the state’s liberation from the “dominance of NGOs”. “Greenpeace is sitting in the Foreign Ministry, Attac in the Ministry of Economics – the NGOs have spread out like a giant squid and often prevent a well-ordered state with their enormous lawsuits.” About Trump’s style of government, Söder said that this might bring short-term successes. “But whether he also lasts in the long term, must still be shown. There is the famous sentence: If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. I believe in the latter.