Open field battle between the still coalition partners Union and SPD!
Occasion: a sentence by CDU Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet (60, CDU), which causes the comrades to explode. The CDU camp shoots back. The mood between the GroKo parties has never been so aggressive.
What happened?
At the CSU party congress in Nuremberg, Laschet quoted CSU superfather Franz Josef Strauss (1915-1988): “To err is human, always to err is social democratic. And he put it in a nutshell: Social Democrats were always on the wrong side in all the decisions made in post-war history. “
The sentence reached Twitter within minutes – and made the Social Democrats boil.
SPD general calls Laschet “mini Trump”
▶ ︎ SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil (43) blows the attack: “No to the Iraq war, Brandt’s Ostpolitik, introduction of a minimum wage & basic pension, marriage for everyone, etc. We have prevailed against the conservatives everywhere. I am very proud of it! The Union has lost real decency and dignity under Laschet. She belongs in the opposition! “
Klingbeil even describes Laschet as “Mini-Trump” – a little later on Twitter, the term “Rhineland Trump” is one of the most popular.
“Torn out of context”, “Targeted disinformation” – the Union camp strikes back
The Union camp, however, sees the sentence “out of context” and posts the entire passage from Laschet’s speech. Because after the Strauss quote (“always on the wrong side”), after a short pause and applause, it continues with: “In economic and financial policy, Edmund Stoiber experienced this in many disputes. Theo Waigel experienced it, it was always the same: Regardless of when – if there was a crisis, Social Democrats thought: We have to get into debt, we have to increase taxes and we have to dictate as much to people as possible. ”
CDU General Secretary Paul Ziemiak (36) answers Klingbeil on Twitter: “Armin Laschet: ‘In all decisions in post-war history, social democrats were always on the wrong side – in economic and financial policy.’ I am sure that Lars Klingbeil accidentally shortened the cutout. Otherwise it would be targeted disinformation. “
So was Laschet only aiming at financial and economic policy?
“Just as wrong,” finds ex-SPD government spokesman and political professional Bela Anda (today from 9.45 p.m. on BILD LIVE). “Think of Helmut Schmidt (oil crisis, G7), Steinbrück (financial crisis with Merkel) and Gerhard Schröder (Agenda2010 in pain). Brandt pushed through the opening to the East against the bitterest resistance of the Union – a worthwhile market for the economy. “
The SPD sees a historically forgotten attack, the Union deliberate manipulation and deliberate misunderstanding. They want to stir up outrage in a targeted manner in order to distract from the good speech of the CDU chancellor candidate in the election campaign finale.
He comes back later to historical decisions in which the SPD was wrong. Laschet: “At the decisive moments in German history, the CDU and CSU stood for the right course: integration into the West, rearmament, retrofitting, reunification.”
In the example of reunification, Laschet mentions Oskar Lafontaine (SPD candidate for chancellor 1990), who had “a completely different model of this process”. Helmut Kohl (CDU), on the other hand, “didn’t even have to think” on November 9, 1989 to know what to do, he acted on the basis of his convictions.
One thing is certain: The dispute between the GroKo partners will be more and more shrill and hurtful this weekend. On Sunday, SPD man Ralf Stegner (61) compared Laschet and the Union even indirectly with the National Socialists, only deleted his tweet after violent protest!
A foretaste of a particularly tough candidate triall tonight? From 9.45 p.m. there will be the big analysis on BILD on TV!
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