Kreuzberg insult: Friedrich Merz is not Germany, please

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CDU leader Friedrich Merz at the »Gillamoos« folk festival

Photo: Sven Hoppe / dpa

This is not meant to sound offended. Admittedly, as a Kreuzberg resident, you can hardly help but roll your eyes when a conservative politician once again vilifies your own neighbourhood in order to get roaring approval from the drunken audience. But as a Kreuzberger with Bavarian roots, you can also understand that a beer tent speech is not a presidential address. It's all about mood, and Friedrich Merz wanted to create a good mood when he served hearty food to the grateful audience at a folk festival in Abensberg, Lower Bavaria: "Kreuzberg is not Germany. Gillamoos is Germany!« Applause!

Now it has been noted many times that Merz compares an inhabited district with an of pleasure that can only be sustained for hours, so his thesis is pointless for that reason alone. But the CDU leader wanted to express a political message. It's only cryptic at first glance. Because Merz speaks in codes. He is counting on friends and opponents to understand these codes correctly. This makes the message all the more irritating, as it comes from the mouth of the leader of a people's party, who wants to become chancellor of this country as soon as possible.

What did Merz want to say, what should his audience understand?

What does the code "Kreuzberg" stand for at Merz? What is "not Germany" for him here? He will certainly not think that the Berlin sub-district is not to be attributed to the territory of the Federal Republic. It can be assumed with certainty that Merz also did not intend to highlight Kreuzberg in a positive way, i.e. to refer to its international attractiveness for newcomers, the high start-up density or the cultural diversity compared to the provincial Gillamoos folk festival.

He wants to devalue Kreuzberg. Perhaps he is referring to the fact that there are more residents with a migrant background living in Kreuzberg than are sitting in his beer tent. He could allude to the fact that the proportion of Muslims in Kreuzberg is higher than at the folk festival. Perhaps he wanted to imply that there is more crime in the neighborhood, greater social tensions, worse drug problems. Or does he refer to Kreuzberg as a haven of left-green, woker ideology, while at least the audience of his appearance presumably thinks staunchly conservatively?

Merz doesn't say it exactly, he leaves it up to his listeners to interpret and continue their thoughts. In doing so, he serves not only one, but all conceivable resentments of his audience. No matter what the individual imagines, he or she should be sure that Merz thinks exactly the same way.

Who belongs – and who doesn't

This populist language may be considered popular or repulsive. What Merz expressed clearly, concretely and unequivocally is alarming: For him, there is a part, an excerpt, a group that is located in Germany, but which does not "are" Germany. For the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, there are those who belong to it and those who do not.

One can concede to a CDU leader that he criticizes political opponents, often polemically, especially in a beer tent. But denying them the right to participate in this Germany, their homeland, has a different quality. It is the language and thinking of a demagogue. In many cases, conservatives complain that the traffic light government is dividing society with its polarizing policies. Friedrich Merz, on the other hand, excludes parts of this society without further ado.

One would wish that a politician who might become chancellor again would name problems, take a political position – and yet acknowledge that there are Germans who don't think like that, don't look like him, don't talk like him. For the good of this country, one can only wish that Friedrich Merz never becomes Chancellor.

However, there is another possibility. Maybe Merz just wanted to curry favor on the Gillamoos, maybe he didn't think for a second about the meaning of his sentence. This is not entirely unlikely. But all the more embarrassing for the mastermind of the opposition.