The FDP has to fight for re-entry into parliament in the 2023 state elections. Now she can present a prominent personality: A former CSU minister wants to change sides.
Munich (dpa / lby) - Exciting personnel a year before the Bavarian state elections: The CSU politician and former Bavarian Minister of Economics Franz Josef Pschierer (66) wants to switch to the FDP. This was announced on Wednesday from informed circles in the state parliament. The personnel was not officially confirmed at first. FDP parliamentary group leader Martin Hagen invited to a press conference at short notice in the afternoon. The CSU said at noon that Pschierer had already left the parliamentary group. The short declaration of resignation was received there on Wednesday.
Pschierer has been a member of the state parliament for the CSU since 1994, and was a member of the cabinet for ten years. From 2008 to 2013 he was State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, then in the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) finally made him Minister of Economics in March 2018 - but he only stayed for eight months: Because the free voters got the Ministry of Economics after the election, Pschierer went away empty-handed.
In CSU circles it was speculated on Wednesday that a possible power struggle for the state parliament candidacy in Pschierer's constituency could have been the trigger for his step. The 66-year-old would have had a serious opponent there, it was said.
On the other hand, Pschierer's relationship with Söder has long been considered burdened. Pschierer, who was also head of the CSU SME Union, did not shy away from public criticism of Söder. For example, Pschierer was one of the critics of Söder's former Corona course early on - he was often very much on the FDP line here.
With the new addition, the FDP should hope for additional votes in the state elections in autumn 2023. In 2018, she narrowly made it into parliament with 5.1 percent. In surveys it has been five to seven percent in recent months, most recently six percent.
