On Sunday evening, a rather marginal event in Munich attracted a lot of attention.

A young mother, 31 years old, clearly prevailed against three candidates in an internal FDP vote in the first ballot and is now being voted for the Free Democrats in the hard-fought Munich-Mitte constituency, in which the Greens parliamentary group leader Ludwig Hartmann is running pull the state election.

The woman's name: Susanne Seehofer.

She is the daughter of the former Bavarian Prime Minister and CSU chairman Horst Seehofer.

Timo Frasch

Political correspondent in Munich.

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The nomination could be a coup for the Bavarian FDP – some in the CSU are jealous.

Although the FDP has a committed and eloquent chairman in Martin Hagen, they find it difficult to get their way through government chiefs Markus Söder and Hubert Aiwanger at the public festival.

Before the 2018 state elections, she managed to do that with one or two interesting personal details, first and foremost with the list of Helmut Markwort, the founder of the magazine "Focus".

But while, with all due respect, Markwort's best days may already be over, Susanne Seehofer's may still be ahead of her.

From the point of view of party strategists, there are several reasons: As this article also shows, it guarantees media attention.

She is a woman, which cannot hurt the FDP parliamentary group, which has so far been male-dominated.

She also speaks the language of the people, especially Bavarian.

In your national association, that is not a matter of course either.

Seehofer relies on the market

Seehofer, married to an entrepreneur, is a liberal, also in terms of economic policy, but her connection to the "Heart of Jesus socialist" Horst Seehofer alone could, so it is hoped, radiate social warmth.

She also stands for the topic of sustainability, which is not exactly overexposed in the FDP.

The business administration graduate with international professional experience (Beijing, California, Mexico) works at BMW as a sustainability officer.

It is therefore far from green: it does not want car-free inner cities, considers the second main S-Bahn line in Munich to be essential and is in favor of "technology openness" in engine development.

"No ban in the world has ever spurred innovation," she claims.

FDP boss Hagen says appreciatively that Seehofer did not accept the candidacy "on a silver platter" but, as is typical of the FDP, went into the competition.

The fact that the woman who lives in Schwabing did not apply outside of Munich without competition also has something to do with her two-year-old daughter (the compatibility of family and career is important to her), but it shows that she, who only joined the FDP in April 2021 has occurred, does not shy away from confrontation.

No revenge on Söder?

She knows that from home, where, as she confided to the FAZ, she did not always agree with her father.

But his example was by no means a deterrent.

Rather, she has a very good relationship with him and, thanks to him, knows what she is getting into.

In her application speech, Seehofer, who the former CSU General Secretary Andreas Scheuer tried unsuccessfully to win over to her father's party using his famous charm, sharply differentiated herself from the Christian Socialists.

"We must not leave Bavaria to them and the free voters," she cried, and criticized the "populism" of the Söder-CSU.

Is the daughter avenging the father, who was rudely pushed out of office by Söder?

"I'm totally free from something like that." She prefers to talk "about our progressive content" rather than about Markus Söder.