Horst Seehofer is the head of the CSU, the Bavarian sister party of Angela Merkel’s CDU. He became Interior Minister when the new cabinet was formed a few weeks ago. It didn’t take him very long in his new office before he became oppositional with his chancellor.
Many thanks to JLH for translating this essay from the conservative monthly magazine Cicero:
Horst Eastwood’s Last Ride
By Christoph Schwennicke
March 19, 2018In films, Clint Eastwood shines in the role of the aging avenger with one last task. In the film Unforgiven the old man with the minimalist facial expression allows himself to be hired to punish those in the desert city of Big Whiskey, who cut up a prostitute’s face. In Gran Torino, he plays the haggard, racist Korean War veteran, Walt Kowalski, who begins by calling his new Asian neighbors “slant-eyes,” and ultimately saves them from a black gang.[1]
Seehofer is Out for Revenge
The Clint Eastwood of the new Grand Coalition is Horst Seehofer. He has come to avenge. Not a prostitute or an Asian family. Himself. On Angela Merkel. Barely in office [after the forming of the coalition], he wasted little time before taking two shots at the chancellor with the largest bore firearm possible. He first let it be known that, in his eyes, Islam is not a part of Germany. The statement that Islam is a part of Germany is indissolubly linked to Merkel’s refugee policy. And then, not 48 hours later, he added fuel to the fire by saying that the lack of borders within the Schengen area had to be stopped, to preserve the borders and the interests of the countries within the inner borders.
The CSU head had to wait a long time for these months of revenge, for this last ride. Meanwhile, he was eating crow, and during the election acted as if everything between him and Merkel were copacetic. However, as early as during the compromise on immigration between the sister parties CDU and CSU last October, before the sounding out for the Jamaica coalition, it became obvious how furious Seehofer was about the blackout Merkel indulged in during the refugee crisis. There is a time for everything, and it is now here, Merkel announced in biblical and conciliatory tones at the joint press conference. A motionless Seehofer’s only reaction was that — outside of the more or less set 200,000 refugees per year — the most important result for him was that these questions would be decided further in the Bundestag “and not some talk shows.” That was a broadside at the chancellor standing next to him who, during the crucial phase of 2015-2016, showed up twice on “Anne Will” but never once went to the Bundestag with her far-reaching decisions that are today generally seen as the unparalleled tailspin of a German federal government.
Merkel’s Most Dangerous Adversary
Merkel thoroughly refuted Seehofer’s Islam/German statement. That was not a sign of strength, but of weakness. She cannot stop Horst Seehofer’s last ride. He has lost his chief minister post [in CSU/Bavaria] and in turn secured the most important post for his purposes — Minister of the Interior and supreme guardian of the homeland. Merkel cannot simply discharge a CSU minister. Certainly not the still-CSU-chief.
Reactions to Seehofer the Avenger from the CDU camp are completely unanimous. What is decisive is how CSU stands in Bavaria with regard to the local election in October. And since Seehofer’s comment (“Islam is not part of Germany”) attracts far more people to its support than Merkel’s unfortunate, original comment — echoed by the erstwhile Federal President Christian Wulff — that will doubtless help the CSU in the election. By the way, Seehofer’s comments that, in this country, the Christian-Jewish view of humanity is inbred, is nothing more than what Merkel literally has said every year at party conventions.
Avengers — whether an aging and drunken gunslinger or a grotesquely outdated Korean War veteran — who were played by Clint Eastwood in the works of his old age, drew their power vis-à-vis younger and physically superior opponents from two sources: an iron will and having nothing to lose. The aging Horst Seehofer is the most dangerous adversary Angela Merkel has ever had.
Note:
| 1. | Schwennicke has conflated two episodes. Walt does save Sue from three black teenagers. But the gang that is harassing the family is, like Thao himself, Hmong — these had been the more or less autonomous hill-folk allies of the US in the Vietnam War. |
Christoph Schwennicke is editor-in-chief of the magazine Cicero.
Frau Merkel needs to get off of Germany’s lawn.
Alas, you cannot put the toothpaste back in the tube. Merkel is right, Islam is part of Germany and the growing and dynamic part that will in a decade or two inherit the place from all the childless old crones like Merkel. Seehofer is a day late and a dollar short. Where was he when the crisis was unfolding and Merkel was making one of the great blunders in German history?
“Merkel was making one of the great blunders in German history?”
Blunder?
Blunder for whom? For Merkel, it went exactly as planned. Just like the British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who it turned out, as documents revealed, planned and consciously implemented the British population replacement we now see.
I don’t see Blair, Merkel and so many others like them as consciously planning the disaster now unfolding. No, they are the unwitting hosts of the deadly cancer-cum-HIV parasite of western societies: cultural Marxism, AKA multiculturalism. The virus cripples immune systems by providing feelings of self-righteousness and a saintly posture, thus simultaneously enabling the infection of others. Critical, self-aware thinking is also knocked out by increasing narcissism and compulsive virtue-signalling. Their insane decisions simply reflect this growing personal insanity
Good one.
A very strong article, which appoints to the basic dividing-line in Germany: those who support the communistical anti-Christ in disguise ‘leader(s)’ and the part that is awaking from a mohammedanian nightmare, the ‘Alternative’ voters (though the first-mentioned group sleepers still keep copying the absurd media-lies about ‘brown shirt-wearing folks’ in that realistic political party, which was already erected long before the immigration-crises became visible). Seehofer will appear to become more popular than his dangerous opponent.
The Establishment v The Alternative.
Which side is growing, which shrinking?
I am amazed that this woman is still in office. Why is it that the electorate keeps voting for her?
Because German people are a [group of people I don’t respect who] will destroy Europe for the third time.
Press censorship, criminalization of free speech, social media censorship, government-funded and regulated press, entrenched, all-powerful bureaucracies, greedy, corrupt, lazy, cowardly politicians, a parliamentary system guaranteeing minimum response to actual public opinion…oh, and a bland, unassertive populace coddled for generations by the welfare state.
That is easy to answer, and a seldom-known fact: the chancellor in Germany is appointed, not voted in.
In the recent elections, 26% of Germans voted for the CDU, Merkel’s party.
Another 6% voted for the CSU, the more conservative, Bavarian “sister” party of the CDU, so that makes 32%.
Enough for the CDU to form a ruling coalition, and, again, appoint Merkel as candidate for chancellor; who was then approved of by the president, another non-elected position in Germany.
Thanks for pointing it out. Americans seem to labor under the impression that Germans elected Merkel.
What we have is a bunch of losers, and together there are enough to run the country. The opposition is not strong enough to upset the apple cart.
Seehofer will in effect draw support from the AFD by seemingly embracing some of their most popular points. In effect, keep the status quo. He is no dummy.
Yes, there is no way denying that. But my impression is that at this point in time, the AfD do not have the personnel to govern, and still need a few years to grow. And I don’t mean that in an unfriendly way, I fully support them.
In the meantime, the best that can happen is, I think, that people like Seehofer – “chased” by a strong AfD – will drive the CSU – and hence the mainstream – back to the center. That would be a good thing, in my opinion.
Of course, there is the opinion that the sooner we “crash”, the better. But such crash might last for hundreds of years, before Europe recovers (if it recovers). I’m not sure I want that. If we can buy time by shifting the mainstream back to the center, that is good in my book.
It’s entertaining and educational to compare the original text and its translation. For example, in “he was eating crow, and during the election acted as if everything between him and Merkel were copacetic”, the reader wonders what the original expression could have been for “eating crow” (it’s “eating chalk”, “Kreide fressen”) and “copacetic” (“in butter”, “in Butter”, hunky-dory).
But “Merkel thoroughly refuted Seehofer’s Islam/German statement.” gave me a start. How could she have refuted (= disproved) Seehofer’s obviously true statement that Islam is not a part of Germany? Checking the original text, we see that all Merkel did was contradict/dispute/speak against (“widersprechen”) Seehofer’s statement, not disprove it. (People sometimes says “refute” when all they mean is “rebut, dispute, argue against”.)
Mark–That is Merriam-Webster’s second definition fr refute.
Yes, that’s unfortunate. Sharp language getting blunt. Refute for a long time meant disprove.
The reconquista shows that Islam CAN be excised from a host culture. If the current rate of terrorist attacks is any indication, a repressive regime of holy Inquisition, complete with burning of heretics, is going to result in less death and a more stable society.
Don’t be fooled yet again by Seehoffer, he’s another political traitor, just trying to get votes by pretending he cares about Germany’s destruction! He’s done nothing this liar, he sits at night drinking fine wine and eating caviar with Merkel and her legion of armed ss blackshirts.
Can we trust any person who is a so-called politician??? No, we can’t.
The whole model of politics and democracy is defunct! Corrupt, a cancer, we need a new better system. Could there be one???
Which is Merriam-Webster’s second definition fr refute.