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Chancellor Angela Merkel took selfies with asylum seekers in September 2015: “Those were strong statements”

Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka / dpa

During her time as chancellor, Angela Merkel had a strong influence on the CDU - from the opening to "marriage for all" to the much more Christian refugee course. Not everyone in the party liked the course. The memoirs of the late CDU politician Wolfgang Schäuble describe how poisoned the atmosphere was. Accordingly, former CSU leader Edmund Stoiber is said to have urged him to overthrow Merkel at the height of the refugee crisis.

In excerpts published by “Stern”, Schäuble describes that the situation in the Union became difficult in the fall of 2015. "The highlight was the CSU party conference, when the Bavarian Prime Minister and CSU chairman (Horst Seehofer) defied the Chancellor like a schoolgirl," it says there. »In the meantime, Edmund Stoiber also became active and encouraged Seehofer, his successor in the prime ministership, in his attacks against Merkel. And he wanted to persuade me to overthrow Merkel in order to become chancellor myself.

“Right for humanitarian and European political reasons”

He firmly rejected this, writes Schäuble. »As was the case with Kohl decades before, I remained convinced that the fall of our own chancellor could only harm our party in the long term without really solving the problem. That was my understanding of loyalty, which perhaps seems a little antiquated by today’s standards.”

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Former CSU leader Edmund Stoiber: Urged to overthrow Merkel

Photo: Frank Hoermann / Sven Simon / IMAGO

Stoiber was Prime Minister of Bavaria from 1993 to 2007 and chairman of the CSU from 1999 to 2007. During the refugee crisis, he repeatedly criticized Merkel's course.

In the passages published by "Stern", Schäuble, who died in December, reiterated his fundamental support for Merkel's decision to keep the German borders open to those seeking protection in autumn 2015, but also expressed criticism of her actions on the issue. »When the Chancellor made the decision, which in retrospect was central to this crisis, on September 4, 2015, to continue to keep the borders open in view of the catastrophic conditions at the Budapest train station, where thousands of refugees were stranded, I thought this was for humanitarian and European policy reasons right,” he writes.

He supported Merkel to the best of his ability and he also found her sentence “We can do it” to be correct. »Those were strong statements. They simply should have been accompanied by a large number of other measures and efforts to make it clear that this unique emergency measure was unrepeatable." In contrast to the Chancellor, he thought it was right to "give the citizens pure wine and make it clear that The commitment to the refugees also involves costs and sacrifices." He was occasionally frustrated that “Merkel remained resistant to advice in some respects. In my opinion, she would have had completely different options to really lead politically and not just react."

The Schäuble book “Memories. My Life in Politics” will be published next week. The CDU politician died on Boxing Day at the age of 81. In his long political career, Schäuble was head of the Chancellery, Federal Minister of the Interior and Finance, chairman of the CDU and President of the Bundestag. Most recently, he was a simple member of the Bundestag, where he served for 51 years - longer than any other member in German parliamentary history. He was buried in his hometown of Offenburg.

mrc/dpa