Enlarge imagePhoto: IMAGO / IMAGO/Smith
A few months before the Bavarian state elections, a simple basic rule applies: Wherever a microphone is switched on, politicians speak into it. On Saturday, the time had come at the Erdinger Volksfestplatz: Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) and his deputy Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters) appeared as speakers at a rally "against heating ideology" to attack the traffic light parties, especially the Greens, with martial words.
"You must have your ass open up there," Aiwanger shouted in the direction of the coalition parties, for example, and the "silent majority" must "take back democracy." CSU leader Söder, on the other hand, opposed, among other things, "compulsive veganization" and "compulsive gendering". Both are united by criticism of the Federal Government's planned heating law. Climate protection is important, Söder said, but should not be enforced with a "brute cure".
Cabaret artist as organizer
According to the police, around 13,000 people took part in the rally, including numerous AfD voters. Cabaret artist Monika Gruber, who had co-organized the protest and was instrumental in ensuring the large influx, had excluded the party from speeches in advance. In the audience, however, she was apparently well represented, also with posters and advertising material. This was probably due to the geographical proximity: The party organized its own rally on the edge of the Volksfestplatz.
Videos show how Söder had to deal with boos and whistles from right-wingers on stage. Before the Prime Minister even spoke, Gruber had to call the audience to reason. "We live in a democracy, friends," she said into the microphone. "Please let every speaker finish. A little more respect, please."
Söder was finally forced to make a detailed demarcation against the AfD. The bourgeois center, according to the CSU chief, has "nothing to do with the AfD and anti-democrats." According to the participants, Söder evaluated the whistles against him "ultimately as whistles against Bayern".