CSU boss Markus Söder faces the burning issues of the coming months in the ARD summer interview on Sunday evening: the impending gas crisis, the Ukraine war and the upcoming Corona autumn. FOCUS Online accompanies the show from 6 p.m. in the live ticker.
6:28 p.m .: The ARD summer interview is over, Deiß and Söder say goodbye. Thank you for reading along!
6:27 p.m .: Finally, Söder praises his state again in the highest tones. “Bavaria is not only a place for people who are looking for protection, but also for those who are looking for success,” said the CDSU leader. “So Bavaria is the land of unlimited opportunities,” he laughs.
6:26 p.m .: How does he feel about the K question? “No one from Bavaria has ever made it,” he says. He names “great other candidates” like Daniel Günther and Hendrik Wüst. “The CSU is no longer an option,” he says. He appeals to the unity of the Union, about Friedrich Merz he says: “We work excellently together.”
6:25 p.m .: The show ends with a quick question round: “Are you angry that you were not invited to Lindner’s wedding”, moderator Matthias Deiß wants to know. “No,” laughs Söder. “But I wish him all the best. I hope he will be happy.”
6:23 p.m .: He compares the dynamics between the “Warner”, Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach and Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann with rivalries that are known from films. He appealed to a uniform line of the federal government. “Bavaria cannot always do what the federal government is competent to do.”
6:20 p.m .: A survey shows that Söder is perceived more and more cautiously among the general public. Söder shouldn’t like that much. Now it’s about Corona. As “Team Caution” he was heavily discussed in public. “I don’t know the concept of the federal government,” says Söder. He calls for more leeway for the countries. He also considers it a “fundamental decision” to no longer offer tests for free.
6:17 p.m .: Relief is needed, says Söder. “The problem is that so far it has been acted very strangely,” Söder continues to criticize the traffic light. The 9-euro ticket would not have brought anything, and the debate about the tank discount was “absurd”, according to the CSU boss. He calls for a reduction in VAT, energy saving measures for everyone in the population, including pensioners and students. “There is an ideology in the government,” he further insinuates of the traffic light. You cannot continue to burden the middle class. Even if parties always act according to their party-political cornerstones, they have to change their course, says Söder.
6:14 p.m .: Söder continues to praise the progress in Bavarian energy policy, especially with regard to photovoltaics. Of course, wind energy in particular can still be expanded. “If the federal government speeds up now, we’re in,” comments Söder.
6:13 p.m .: “I find it completely incomprehensible that the FDP submits to the Greens,” Söder continues to applaud the traffic light government. He does not want to extend the nuclear power plants forever, but it is currently necessary.
6:11 p.m .: The energy policy of the last few years has not worked, now we are facing a new turning point, he says. The Greens would now prevent the extension of nuclear power plants. It’s about the ideology of the party, he says.
6:09 p.m .: A single player shows Söder’s politics last year. He was known as a pioneer in the caution team, then suddenly he became more and more relaxed in his corona policy. In his energy policy, too, Söder keeps changing course – now he’s taunting the responsibility of the traffic light government in the gas crisis. Söder the “Stichelmeister”, it says in the article.
6:07 p.m.: Currently everything in renewable energy would be tripled. “If the south does something, then it does it right,” says Söder, as usual, confident.
6:05 p.m.: “Other countries have secured themselves. Nothing is safe with us,” says Söder. Both the supply bottlenecks and the expansion of LNG terminals are still unclear. “We cannot allow millions of people to become poor,” says Söder, even if Ukraine needs help.
6:03 p.m.: The interview begins. The first is the impending gas crisis. The traffic light is not prepared for this, says Söder. “The strategy of supplying more weapons would have worked more against Putin,” said the CSU leader. Now you are in a “chaotic gas situation”. According to the Bavarian Prime Minister, Putin was underestimated.
After the failed attempt at a chancellor candidacy in 2021, CSU boss Markus Söder is now concentrating entirely on Bavaria. There he will have to face the voters in the coming year – an “election of fate”, as he recently called it. On Sunday evening he is now a guest in the ARD summer interview in the “Report from Berlin”. Matthias Deiß, deputy studio manager in the ARD capital studio, welcomes Söder at 6 p.m. on the terrace of the Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus. FOCUS Online accompanies the show in the live ticker.
Söder is currently using the opposition role in the federal government to raise its profile. As the head of the CSU, he railed against the traffic lights in Berlin. He wants to let nuclear power plants run longer and is now taking part in Corona instead of in the “Team Caution” in the “Team Volksfest”. He is dissatisfied with the federal government, complains that the relief for citizens is not targeted and criticizes the handling of the increasing gas shortage.
