German election diary: the CDU/CSU, sulking sisters; the bloated Bundestag

WITH FRIENDS like these, who needs enemies? Another family row has broken out between Germany’s sister conservative parties—the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) and its bigger sibling, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). The pair choose a joint candidate for chancellor, and in April , the CDU’s leader (pictured, right), got the nod over the more popular Markus Söder, head of the CSU (on the left). The parties were supposed to unite behind Mr Laschet, but after months of barely disguised sulking, the CSU is now making it clear that they find him as impressive as a soggy Weisswurst. On September 8th, asked by a journalist if Mr Laschet was Germany’s next chancellor, Mr Söder grimaced and responded with a sarky “Klar!” (“Sure”). A day later Markus Blume, the CSU’s secretary-general, told Der Spiegel that the CDU/CSU would “of course” be doing better had they opted for his boss. (File that under “true, but unhelpful.”) Expect grimaces all round when Mr Laschet appears at the CSU’s pre-election congress in Nuremberg on September 11th.__________Meanwhile the CDU’s miseries have only deepened. Its panicked campaign to spook voters into believing that , the popular Social Democrat (SPD) chancellor-candidate, will invite the hard leftists of Die Linke into government has utterly failed to shift the polling needle. Yet it is doubling down. Even Angela Merkel, who had been doing her best to remain aloof from the campaign fray, was sucked in this week. At what was probably her last appearance before parliament she warned that a vote for Mr Scholz—who has served as her vice-chancellor since 2018—risked undermining Germany’s much-prized “moderation”. “I’m only telling the truth!” the chancellor exclaimed, as Die Linke MPs booed. (Commentators dismayed by Mrs Merkel’s rare foray into partisanship seemed surprised to learn that Germany’s monarchical chancellor remains a party politician.) There is still a fortnight to go, and the may be wrong. But for now, the is looking like a case study in some future political strategists’ textbook on how to lose elections.__________