The CSU is like a car driver who accelerates with the handbrake on.

The poster with which the CSU regional group had invited to a retreat at Seeon Abbey is also good for illustrating this state of affairs: the good old German flag was to be seen under a CSU logo - but formed from black, red and gold billows of smoke, the one bring a bit of Kreuzberg to Upper Bavaria.

The slogan for this: "A new time, a new balance."

Timo Frasch

Political correspondent in Munich.

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The CSU-Landesgruppe, the avant-garde of the conservatives according to its self-image, has always connected with its closed meetings the claim to determine the headlines, gladly also in contrast to the sister party.

This time the organizers had difficulties there - the election program, which is hardly able to tear their own people off the stool, was finally worked out together with the CDU.

All the more welcome was the partly incorrect statement of the joint chancellor candidate Armin Laschet, according to which he saw no scope for tax relief "at the moment" and that the program contained "not a single tax relief".

The tone has changed

The CSU was able to accelerate again without releasing the handbrake, in other words: to present itself as the party of relief without having to say when which relief would come - "gradually", as CSU boss Markus Söder said in Seeon.

From the point of view of the Christian-Social you don't even need to know more details.

In any case, the sound makes the music, or, to use a word from CSU General Secretary Markus Blume, "the basic melody".

That has changed at the CSU for a few weeks.

While the Greens were the goal and yardstick of all efforts for months, especially for Söder, the word FDP is now used much more frequently, to the delight of the regional group leader and “Germany coalition” fan Alexander Dobrindt.

In any case, the claim to chase away the Green voters through a strong climate policy is no longer so strongly articulated - now the CSU is primarily addressing “bourgeois voters”, of whom, according to surveys, quite a few are tempted to give theirs to the Free Democrats or even the Free voters Vote.

Child splitting and expansion of the maternal pension

At the same time, the CSU, which always wants everything, also wants to remain the party of the “Leberkäs floor”. The fact that high earners benefit more than average from the Union's electoral program, as a recent study showed, is not accepted. The calculation puts too much weight on the abolition of the solidarity surcharge for everyone. However, this is necessary because otherwise a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court would be looming and a loss of income would then have to be lamented, which in turn could lead to tax increases.

Incidentally, the CSU refers to what it has in its quiver for Horst Seehofer's once so-called little people. On Thursday in Seeon it was decided to relieve single parents with an income of 3000 euros compared to the pre-crisis level by more than 900 euros a year. In addition, child splitting and the expansion of maternal pensions are to be added; with which one has already successfully campaigned twice.

The CSU does not overly contest the question of where the money should come from. The state's income has recently always developed better than forecast, in any case differently. Incidentally, there would be a Jamaica coalition today if FDP leader Christian Lindner had been more accommodating in the coalition negotiations on the abolition of the Soli and had not insisted on the alleged impossibility of financing. Last but not least, a great deal could still happen before the election, and especially before the formation of a government.

This was shown in a dramatic way by the absence of Armin Laschet, with which the CSU actually wanted to send a “signal of unity”, but also a “signal of relief”.

The fact that he canceled because of the flooding was described by host Dobrindt as "right and necessary", both humanly and politically - the memories of Edmund Stoiber's candidacy for chancellor, from whom Gerhard Schröder stole the election victory in rubber boots, are fresh enough.

Söder also expressed full understanding.

"It was clear that Armin Laschet had to be with his people, his country today." The flood disaster only shows one thing: "Climate change will continue to occupy us." Next week he will make a government statement on the subject.