Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder has left no doubt about his antipathy towards the AfD. On German Day at the Junge Union, he described AfD politicians as “servants of the Kremlin”. Left parties also received criticism.
Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) accused the AfD of being close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “These troops are great, they are Putin’s jesters, they are the Kremlin’s lackeys,” Söder said at Germany Day at the Junge Union in Rust, south Baden. AfD members of the Bundestag will invite a group of visitors to the Russian embassy in Berlin. “They are not patriots, they are traitors to our country,” Söder said.
The CDU and CSU are the only parties left in Germany that have successfully conducted politics against the AfD, Söder said, pushing back against criticism that the Union is too similar to the AfD’s rhetoric. “The only ones capable of preventing the radicals from coming to power are the CDU and CSU, no one else in the country.”
Söder predicted “huge and difficult battles” for the upcoming election campaign, especially in East Germany. Like CDU party leader Friedrich Merz, he ruled out collaboration with the AfD. “We have different ideas about freedom,” Söder said. The judiciary and police should not be controlled solely by the state leadership and minority groups should be oppressed. “Our C forbids us from doing that,” he said, alluding to the name of his party. The AfD is partly made up of “freaks”, many of whom are suspected of right-wing extremism or even face prosecution.
Söder wants to bring forward corporate tax reductions
He also opposed the Left Party because the demand for an increase in inheritance tax was very popular there and inheritance would be considered “non-performance income”. “The socialization of property has always been a socialist idea,” says Söder. Inheritance tax needs to be reduced, not increased.
He also called for corporate tax reductions to be brought forward. “We won the election and we set the direction here. We are not partners in a smaller coalition,” Söder said. It can be proven that higher tax rates lead to lower tax revenues and emigration in the long run. “That’s why we have to consider whether we can make corporate tax cuts rather than spending the money on other things.”
Söder touched on corporate tax cuts, which the Red and Black government wants to reduce gradually starting in 2028. The economy demands earlier relief. Söder also suggested that inheritance tax should be reduced rather than increased.
The SPD called for tax increases on high earners, especially taking into account the federal budget from 2027 and planned cuts in the social sector. A decision from the Federal Constitutional Court on inheritance tax is also expected.
dpa/lay
