It’s not even a month before the state elections in Saxony – and the fear of the CDU is rising to the level of hysteria. Instead of changing tack and making policies for the citizens, state Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer is struggling in the mire of completely misguided ‘politically correct’ precepts. To nevertheless somehow succeed, he has dropped any sense of decency and is denouncing his main political competitor, the AfD. He told the ‘Focus’ blog that he saw parallels “in the tone” of the AfD and the extreme nationalist NPD. Of course he didn’t provide any proof, because in today’s witch-hunt atmosphere the accusation is sufficient, which is eagerly spread, unchecked, by journalists who have the ‘correct’ attitude.

How desperate do you have to be to believe that by discrediting your political competitor you will win votes? Kretschmer, who is apparently surrounded by a cordon of politically correct whisperers, fights like Don Quixote against the windmills of Merkel's political mistakes, because he does not have the strength to turn away from her and set his own agenda. His fate will finally be sealed when he is once again defeated by the AfD candidate and does not win his own constituency or voting district. Kretschmer is becoming a tragic figure, but he himself has contributed a considerable amount to it.

He doesn’t want to form a coalition with the AfD, he assures us time and again, instead of simply remaining silent and letting the voters decide. So what does he want instead? To govern with the SED/Left Party in a four-way-alliance? Why is the renamed party, which was responsible for killing escapees at the Iron Curtain, that has “system change” on its platform as a political goal, i.e. the turning away from democracy, a possible coalition partner, while the AfD, which copied and pasted large parts of the CDU’s 2002 and 2005 election manifestos, including their punctuation and spelling mistakes, is not? Because the AfD has weird people in its ranks? The SED/Left Party has never parted company with its Stasi members and other perpetrators. Is that acceptable?

Today the CDU is a chimera. It only has the name in common with Konrad Adenauer's or Helmut Kohl's party. In the Merkel years it was completely emptied of content and filled with red-green hackneyed ideas. That is why this party is now being helplessly hounded by the Greens. In many localities it doesn't even campaign anymore. What could it tell the voters anyway?

Michael Kretschmer is fighting, but for a lost cause. If he remains prime minister of Saxony because of a pact with the SED/Left party, he will not only have lost his decency, but also sold his soul.

Translated from eigentümlich frei, where the original article was published on August 8th 2019.