It is a fateful choice for the CSU.
With this statement, Markus Söder only spoke half the truth when he presented his new personnel tableau in the cabinet and party.
The state election in Bavaria next year is above all a fateful choice for himself. The power man Söder, who was glorified by his paladins in the CSU in the lost power struggle with Armin Laschet as the “Chancellor candidate of the heart”, must do significantly better in 2023 than last time.
Otherwise he won't even be able to move to Berlin, just a similar political fate as his predecessor Beckstein.
After the terrible performance of the CSU in 2018, Söder was able to excuse himself by saying that as the newly elected prime minister he had not yet been able to have enough impact.
Söder now wants to have an effect on voters with a classic political maneuver that he unsuccessfully recommended to Angela Merkel.
With the reshuffle of his cabinet and the replacement of his general secretary, Söder is aligning everything with the state elections.
With down-to-earth topics and new minds like District Administrator Christian Bernreiter, who is deeply rooted in the CSU, Söder wants to be more of a state father than a climate rescuer.
But ministers at his side have a hard time.
He wants them to shine in office, but most of all he wants them to shine.
An almost impossible task.