These days, some in the CSU have a scenario based on the motto “What would Söder have done?” The fiction goes something like this: Markus Söder does not hesitate for long.

The day after the devastating flood disaster in the west of the republic, the Union's candidate for chancellor appeared at the site of the terrible accident, flown in in a helicopter, which was later used to rescue several people.

Eckart Lohse

Head of the parliamentary editorial office in Berlin.

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Markus Wehner

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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In front of the backdrop of dozens of vehicles from the Bavarian Technical Relief Organization, Söder stands in front of the cameras in the disaster area. He assures unrestricted solidarity from the south of the republic and announces its own emergency aid fund in the millions for the flood victims, which is fed from the budget of the Free State of Bavaria. In a cascade of press conferences, he announces an intensified fight for climate protection, promises a quick end to the internal combustion engine and a faster phase-out of coal. Of course it's not like that. Because Söder is known to be not a candidate for Chancellor.

Söder is to the Union what football player Erling Haaland is to Borussia Dortmund. Like the tall top striker, the Bavarian Prime Minister knows only one movement: forward, on goal. If one out of five shots is possible, that is a success. When Söder sits, he rocks his legs as if he couldn't wait to storm off again.

The idea of ​​drastically tightening the testing requirement for travelers returning to travel in view of the increasing incidence of corona did not originally come from the CSU chairman. But he grabbed it and produced images that week in such a density that the viewer could hardly avoid connecting the matter with him. On Tuesday afternoon, the Prime Ministers of the Union spoke into the evening in an internal switching conference about the obligation to test. It was agreed not to hold a press conference afterwards. Söder then took on this single-handedly by giving an interview to ZDF and then ARD immediately after the meeting. A good 24 hours later, he let Markus Lanz join the panel discussion and teased the CDU's election platform. Söder, Söder, Söder, wherever you look.

Armin Laschet, CDU chairman, candidate for chancellor, by far the most important man in the Union, is no less hardworking and active than Söder.

But it produces few images.

One in the CDU, definitely a supporter of Laschet, gets excited when he ran up to a "speaker" alongside Chancellor Angela Merkel when she was visiting the flood area.

A photo appeared in a tabloid that only showed Merkel, although Laschet was standing a few meters away from her.

Something like that is currently creating a bad mood in the CDU.

In terms of content, Laschet seems undeterred despite everything

Söder's taunts cause trouble in the big sister party. But someone says that Laschet also provides enough templates. The worst thing was when the Union's candidate for chancellor laughed during a visit to the flood area, while Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier spoke seriously a few meters in front of him. Even if it is heard in the CDU as in the CSU that something like this could happen, the demand is added that Laschet should have countered this immediately with a message that would make the mistake forgotten. “He doesn't even try,” sighs a CDU campaigner.