[ad_1]
For years Holger Stahlknecht had only one direction: go up. For many, the interior minister and the head of state of the CDU was already the successor to Prime Minister Haseloff in Saxony-Anhalt. Now he’s rushing to conduct an interview.
The pocket square, the intuition and every word is right: this is how Interior Minister Holger Stahlknecht always appeared. Nothing seemed to stand between him and the freestyle of the CDU’s next top candidate except himself.
CDU Country Head with great approval
For a time, Stahlknecht seems to have been successful in everything. With his crisis management team, he wisely handles the avalanche of the century in 2013. He gives interviews at the national level, faces duels with the AfD in state parliament and receives much recognition. Two years ago, he was elected the CDU’s country head with 85 percent approval and long applause. Therefore, he is considered the determined successor of Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff.
The opera is closer to the 56-year-old than the beer tent, he smokes a pipe, praises piano and jazz nights, and prefers to stay away from the social gatherings of the parliamentary group and the rank and file. For some in the CDU, he is still a West German: he comes from Hannover. But already in the early 1990s, Stahlknecht came to Saxony-Anhalt as a young business lawyer. And he stayed. He is married with two children and, as a passionate hunter, he also has several dogs.
From prosecutor to Minister of the Interior
Stahlknecht was mayor of his small hometown Wellen in Börde for many years, at first still independent. Every party had campaigned for him to take his match book, Stahlknecht once said. Opt for Christian Democrats and quickly make a career out of it. In 2002 he left the post of prosecutor and moved to the state parliament as a member of parliament, four years later he was deputy leader of the parliamentary group and five years later Minister of the Interior.
Even before the 2016 state elections, some encouraged him to compete against Haseloff to become the CDU’s top candidate. Now, four years later, Stahlknecht would have liked. Elections will be held in Saxony-Anhalt in June 2021. But incumbent Haseloff recently thwarted his ambitions when he announced that he would run for a third term as the CDU’s top candidate. Stahlknecht doesn’t let it come down to an open power struggle, but lets the incumbent precede.
Growing criticism
Especially since Stahlknecht was no longer indisputable, especially in the shaky coalition with the SPD and the Greens. Criticisms of the lack of a police presence in front of the synagogue during the terrorist attack in Halle, the din of the state CDU dealing with a district executive with a neo-Nazi tattoo and the failed appointment of police unionist Rainer Wendt are just the most examples. flashy.
When the crisis teams of governments under the leadership of the interior ministers begin in the Corona crisis in many federal states, Stahlknecht remains almost invisible. Instead, Haseloff himself takes the lead in the crisis and then the renewed top bid for state elections in 2021.
Did you want to get over Haseloff?
But as of today, Stahlknecht is no longer sitting on the waiting bench, but on the political sidelines. Because, of all things, with an interview that had not been agreed upon in the middle of the most sensitive phase of the confusing coalition dispute over the transmission rate, he spoke. Many see this as an attempt to surpass Haseloff after all and become Prime Minister. The attempt fails. Haseloff fires his interior minister. Reason: Severely disturbed trust relationship.
Source: dpa
