BAVARIA VERSUS MERKEL
MIROSŁAW PIOTROWSKI
The prime minister Orban said publicly that ‘it is Hungary which is defending the southern borders of Bavaria today’.
Bavaria says ‘enough’. The prime minister of this land and also the leader of CSU Horst Seehofer consistently claims for stopping the flow of immigrants from the chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel. He even threatened to submit the claim to the Constitutional Tribunal in Karlsruhe. His nervousness results from the fact that most immigrants are just going towards Bavaria, which is the richest unions country in Germany. In fact, similarly as Saxony, it has the status of a free country (Freistaat Bayern).
Many inhabitants of Bavaria are thinking about independence. However, as long as it does not come, the asylum policy remains in the hands of Berlin, that is, the chancellor Merkel. Bavaria does not give in and in a possible appeal to the Tribunal, it intends to use an argument that Merkel’s policy ‘puts an ability of their country to act at risk’. Politicians in Bavaria are outraged that Berlin did not even consult them about letting a lot of unregistered asylum seekers arriving from Hungary enter their country. Unlike the central authorities, they praise the prime minister Victor Orban, who is the only person to have shown a definite attitude towards aggressive so-called refugees. Orban publicly said that ‘‘it is Hungary which is defending the southern borders of Bavaria today’, and called himself ‘a captain of the border guard of Germany’’. He said these words during a common press conference with the prime minister of Bavaria, whose attitude towards immigrants is the same as Orban’s. As it turns out, the public opinion in Germany took the side of Seehofer, and Merkel has got a problem. She was criticized also by the competitive Alternative for Germany, as well as many politicians and activists of CDU co-governing with CSU. In the home party of Merkel – CDU – there is much concern.
Its politicians notice a clear decline in popularity towards the chancellor against whom there appear accusations of Eastern-German origin - Ossi. A number of MPs of CDU publicly criticize the attitude of Merkel, which has been unacceptable so far. Coalition MPs were shouting during a meeting with the chancellor that Germany did not belong only to her. From day to day, Angela Merkel is losing support and may start feeling lonely soon. One of most popular German weeklies entitled its leading article: ‘Merkel alone at home’. The prime minister of Bavaria Horst Seehofer is getting politically stronger, and his advisors will probably opt for not so much separation of this land, but for taking over leadership in the whole country.
AA
„Niedziela” 43/2015