Saarland's Prime Minister Tobias Hans (CDU) suffered a setback at the start of the campaign before the state elections at the end of March.

Just hours after introducing Saarland photographer and graphic designer Marisa Winter as a member of a shadow cabinet on cultural issues, Winter withdrew again.

The reason: photos had become public showing them protesting against the corona measures.

Winter ran in mid-January without wearing a face mask at a demonstration under a poster that said, among other things: “No forced injection”, “pandemic lie” and “God will judge you very soon”.

Julian Staib

Political correspondent for Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland based in Wiesbaden.

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After her withdrawal from the campaign team, Winter told Saarland radio that she was not opposed to vaccination and had been vaccinated against Covid-19 herself.

She very much regrets that she did not wear a mask at the demonstration, she has nothing to do with the sign.

In a statement, she continued: "I went to a Corona demonstration once because, as a cultural worker, I have an interest in exchange."

On Wednesday morning, Hans presented his shadow cabinet consisting of nine people, including members of his cabinet, but also district administrators and people from research and culture.

They are all “young and experienced minds” from different parts of society who want to “tackle the change agenda for Saarland” with him, said Hans at the presentation.

The Saar SPD sharply criticized the incident.

Secretary General Christian Petry announced that Hans had "missed any diligence".

The Prime Minister must explain whether there is a strategy behind the personnel decision and his recent “vaccination obligation turnaround”.

The background to this is that Hans, like the CDU federal chairman Friedrich Merz and Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU), spoke out in favor of temporarily suspending the obligation to vaccinate in the healthcare system at the beginning of the week, as many questions about the implementation are unresolved.

The advance causes controversy in the grand coalition of Saarland.

The deputy prime minister of the Saarland, economics minister Anke Rehlinge (SPD), accused Hans on Wednesday of acting “campaign tactically”.

"It's about nothing less than the protection of the sick and those in need of care, because I find prime ministers who play the opposition simply indecent," said Rehlinger.

In Saarland, the state parliament will be re-elected on March 27th.

In polls, the CDU led by Hans is around five percentage points behind the SPD.