The Prime Minister has climbed up to the pulpit to address the congregation.

Daniel Günther stands in St. Petri Cathedral in Schleswig, pulls his mask off his face and looks down at the rows of believers.

Günther himself is said to have admired the pulpit in the cathedral and probably joked that he wanted to speak there.

When the bishop actually invited the top candidates of the parties to give pulpit speeches on a Bible passage for the state elections, it was Günther who hesitated a bit.

Who knows how it works when a politician speaks to the community?

What it looks like and what a sentence sounds like: The prime minister has climbed up to the pulpit to speak to the congregation.

Matthias Wysuwa

Political correspondent for northern Germany and Scandinavia based in Hamburg.

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In any case, Daniel Günther is now standing in the pulpit and the community is waiting quietly.

It's a Sunday in March, outside Schleswig lies sleepy in the morning sun and inside all the rows in the mighty cathedral are filled to the last seat.

Günther has prepared a pulpit speech on the Bible verse "Be kind and affectionate to one another and forgive one another, just as God forgave you in Christ", Ephesians 4:32.

But he begins with a joke that is not in the script: fortunately, the bishop had previously shown him how to get to the pulpit.

The Occupational Health and Safety Ordinance is not observed for every step.

But since people usually go up here who are protected by God, they all come down healthy.

Big grins, giggles in the ranks.

The church is his now and will remain with him throughout his speech.

It doesn't even matter that he's actually a Catholic.

When a new state parliament is elected in Schleswig-Holstein on Sunday, Günther can hope for great success.

Polls predict his CDU about 38 percent, that would be another six points more than the victory in 2017. He has already proven himself on many stages in the country in the past five years, whether in pulpits, at festivals, in the state parliament or in the internal ones rounds of his Jamaica coalition.

He and Jamaica are so popular in the country that the alliance of the CDU, Greens and FDP after the election will probably come to an end because of the sheer approval.

Then, when perhaps two of the three partners already have a majority.

And that is probably the greatest uncertainty in the country and for Günther when the polling stations are closed on Sunday evening: how and with whom will things continue?

intermediary rather than leader

But even in the election campaign, things don't always go as smoothly for Günther as they do in the pulpit.

At the end of April, his rapid corona test shows two dashes.

The television trio with Thomas Losse-Müller from the SPD and Monika Heinold from the Greens, both of whom would like to succeed him in the state chancellery, has to be canceled, as have numerous other campaign dates.

In the middle of the hot election campaign phase, he has to take a Corona break.

Günther cannot leave the house for more than a week.

It's Tuesday, five days before the election, when he calls.

In the morning the test was positive again, he reports.

Günther is doing well again, on two days he lay down with a fever, on the other days he continued to coordinate with his party and his ministers, and occasionally gave interviews.

He says he takes it relatively easy.

"It's just the way it is now." He accepts that, because he's completely Schleswig-Holstein.

He also doesn't believe that this put him at a disadvantage, after all, tens of thousands of others in the country had to go through it at that time.