Hesse: Hard headwind from Hesse for Nancy Faeser

Wiesbaden (dpa/lhe) - Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser has faced tough opposition from Hesse for her decision to remain in the federal government as the top candidate of the Hessian SPD.

Hesse: Hard headwind from Hesse for Nancy Faeser

Wiesbaden (dpa/lhe) - Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser has faced tough opposition from Hesse for her decision to remain in the federal government as the top candidate of the Hessian SPD. Both the government and the opposition factions made skeptical and negative statements in Wiesbaden on Thursday.

"In the interests of our country, I hope that the work in the Federal Ministry of the Interior will not suffer and that important decisions will not be instrumentalised by party politics," said the Secretary General of the Hessian CDU, Manfred Pentz. "Of course, people will be very careful that the office is not misused for election campaign purposes."

The future will show whether Faeser will be able to meet the great responsibility as interior minister in the federal government and the top candidate of the SPD in Hesse at the same time, said Green party leader Mathias Wagner. "Obviously she doesn't really believe in winning the next election with the SPD. Otherwise she wouldn't be trying to dance at two weddings at the same time, but would be doing all she could to take care of Hesse."

"The office of Federal Minister of the Interior is not a part-time job," emphasized Left Party leader Jakob Migenda. Faeser should either make the office available or forego the top candidate in Hesse. "The needs and problems of the Hessians are too far away from Berlin."

"Dancing at two weddings at the same time is not good," said AfD party and faction leader Robert Lambrou. "With her announcement, Minister Faeser disqualifies herself either as a top candidate or as Federal Minister of the Interior."

SPD faction leader Günter Rudolph, on the other hand, emphasized: "She is the right person for an electoral success for the SPD in Hesse and for the long overdue policy change in our state." He therefore assumes that the committees of the Hessian SPD will confirm Nancy Faeser as the top candidate with a large majority at the Hesse summit in Friedewald this Friday. A new state parliament will be elected in Hesse on October 8th.