The Union is in danger of becoming lonely. According to current surveys, it is entirely possible that the CDU will find itself in the state parliament alone with the AfD and BSW after the coming election in Saxony. For the incumbent Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer, the question of a useful strategy for dealing with the populist opposition is all the more important.
“Does speaking help against radicals?” Caren Miosga asked him on her talk show on Sunday evening. Following the individual interview, she expanded the group to include the journalist Elisabeth Niejahr and the historian Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk.
“My life consists of a fight against right-wing extremism – even as a teenager,” emphasized CDU politician Kretschmer. It is “wrong” to accuse the Saxon Union of ignoring the problem. And it is “excessive” to pin right-wing extremism on “any part of the country.”
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The majority of people in Saxony fight for democracy, cosmopolitanism and decent interactions with each other. However, Kretschmer qualified: “We have not managed to remove the breeding ground.” The best way to defend democracy is for democracy and the rule of law to solve the problems.
Kretschmer denied the traffic light coalition’s ability to find these solutions. Democracy means opening up a “discourse space” and involving people. “That doesn’t happen in this current federal government,” he said. Instead, it ignores the population when it comes to the energy transition or subsidies for agricultural diesel.
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The CDU politician explained that 500,000 farmers went to Berlin “to clarify an issue” and were “sent home feeling completely helpless.” In doing so, the government is driving people into the hands of protest parties.
The conservatives and “anti-democratic discord”
“I would have liked much, much tougher intervention from all parties when something like gallows was shown,” said Elisabeth Niejahr, criticizing the brutality that was expressed in the farmers’ protests. The former journalist heads the “Strengthening Democracy” department at the Hertie Foundation.
Although she praised Kretschmer’s approach to dialogue, she also blamed his party, which has governed Saxony since 1990, for a lack of political education. “The deficits are obvious,” said the journalist. “When it comes to democracy, there is a lot of room for improvement.” Surveys show that the AfD is “particularly strong,” particularly among those under 25.
“Oppose stop sign”
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Historian Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk accused the Saxon Prime Minister of downplaying the problem of fascism in Saxony. The “anti-democratic discord” in dealing with the traffic light coalition and the Greens in particular shows that the conservative milieu has “adopted the language and thinking of the AfD”.
Kretschmer reacts angrily to the accusation. Promoting democracy has “always been the issue” since 1990, he asserted. To act as if the CDU were “even remotely ignoring right-wing extremism and anti-constitutionalism or condoning it” was “simply not okay,” the Union politician emphasized. “That is an impudence.”
The Saxon Prime Minister also took a defensive stance with regard to his relationship with Russia. “You will not find a quote in which I make clear my understanding of the Russian president and this war of aggression,” he insisted. However, Kretschmer criticized the choice of means used to try to help Ukraine. “It can only be done with diplomacy,” emphasized the CDU politician, “Unfortunately this country has no diplomats at the moment.”
Dangerous “habituation effects”
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With his demand to freeze the war, he is pursuing a “perspective of what is possible”. His position is “more unpleasant” but also “more honest” than that of the federal government, which avoids naming the aim of the war.
“The war aim of the Russian Federation is to destroy freedom and democracy,” Kowalczuk replied reproachfully. “Western war aims can only be to prevent this by all possible means.” It would only be possible to pursue a negotiation path if Vladimir Putin was willing to do so. The demand for diplomacy is therefore populism, AfD and BSW speak.
Kowalczuk clearly criticized the CDU’s attitude towards Sahra Wagenknecht. Mainly because of this, the left has been “incapable of dialogue and coalition” in recent years. Instead of with Bodo Ramelow, who is doing “a really great job,” the Union is now discussing forming a coalition with “this person,” he accused Kretschmer.
He again appeared unimpressed. He couldn’t say anything about “this group”. The topic is a “media construct”. Even during his time in the Bundestag, he never spoke to the current BSW chairwoman. “The temperature dropped by five degrees when she entered the room,” he recalled. “It’s not at all clear to me that it exudes such fascination.”