Among the many contradictions that the Bavarian Prime Minister and CSU Chairman Markus Söder produces with his politics, his election campaign, his dialect, this one is the most interesting: If the polls are correct, Markus Söder would have preferred Markus Söder to be a candidate for Chancellor than Armin Laschet and rather to be Chancellor than Olaf Scholz.

Claudius Seidl

Editor in the features section.

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Really all of Germany?

No, the Bavarian people, of all people, do not seem to be entirely convinced - or how else do you interpret the polls that say that the CSU may get less than thirty percent here. Where a nice absolute majority in Bavaria would be the clearest message to the people as well as to the compromisers and bureaucrats of the sister party: that with the right candidate a real victory could be achieved. And that to compensate for the expected defeat, a lot of CSU people would then dominate the shrunken common Union faction.

Söder fights, louder and more clearly visible than the rest of the CSU;

he is not even available for election - the top candidates of the CSU are Dorothee Bär and Alexander Dobrindt.

But in the CSU election spot, Markus Söder is the author, the main actor, the most important message.

If it were a cinema, it would be called an auteur film.

Since it is politics, it has a touch of personality cult.

Söder drives up a couple of serpentines on an electric bike;

then he stands on an artificial hill in the east of Munich and speaks from there to his people.

The world is confusing and chaotic, so it needs “someone who holds the whole thing together, but who urges something to be renewed.

And that's where I see my task, central. "

A titan at the beginning of the world

The spot is clever in its simplicity. No animal was tortured, no money wasted, no lock rented, no costume parade freshly dressed. A man, his bike, his hill. And the pale sky above him. No tricks; One would almost say that this is more Achternbusch than Hollywood - if it weren't for the heroic views from below, views of Söder from the perspective of a kneeling man: the two-meter man in the backlight, alone with himself and his gigantic task. Below, at the foot of the hill, barely recognizable, are a few houses. Further back, indistinct and blurred, one can sense the towers of Munich.

One almost inevitably associates the Greek myth, or at least Ayn Rand.

A Titan at the beginning of all time, who has yet to shape the world he wants to rule.

A creator who has all strength and inspiration in himself.

A man not yet shackled by compromises, institutions, traditions.

And frees you from all images of the past.

Anyone who, as a Bavarian or a newcomer, has been annoyed again and again about how the CSU suggested in its self-portrayals that all the beautiful, the mountains and the lakes, the churches, castles, old cities, even the green hills and the white-blue sky about it, ultimately only thanks to her, he may rate Söder's clip as fresh, new, impressive.

More wit, more elegance

And because this spot is shown all over Germany, you can imagine its effect on the non-Bavarian audience: For years, given the lack of charisma, spirit, wit and elegance in German politics, people consoled themselves with the thought that maybe not criteria of politics, but those of aesthetics. And that you are at least well governed, which is much more important. The epidemic made it clear that this was an illusion: neglected infrastructure, holey internet connections, an anachronistic bureaucracy. The whole of Germany seems to be as blurred and blurred as the views down from Söders Hill. And Markus Söder, for whom the pan-German reach of his election spot has made it an alternative candidate that is always considered by the public,will not alleviate the lack of elegance. But he has a certain gross charisma; and his spot and his legs apart in general promise that he has the strength that the titanic tasks demand.