How Bosbach should help the CDU in the “Eastern election campaign”.

DThe evening is already well advanced when Wolfgang Bosbach grabs a handheld microphone, swings up the stage, circles around the lectern and stands in the middle of his audience: “I have to apologize to you in full format!”

The former CDU domestic politician was the keynote speaker at the CDU's election campaign launch in eastern Thuringia on Thursday evening, but arrived more than an hour late. He drove 460 kilometers from the Rhineland to Pößneck and, of all things, got behind a tractor demo in the last few kilometers. “It’s actually not that bad,” says 71-year-old Bosbach, who was behind the wheel himself. “So I got to know great places like Kaulsdorf and Ranis on the detour.” And it wouldn’t have been any faster by train. “I don’t know if you know this, but punctuality on the train means: the date is right.”

The 300 people in the hall are now laughing, for the first time the mood is easing this evening in the richly decorated hall of the Schützenhaus, where the CDU of the Saale-Orla district has invited people to the New Year's reception. The situation here is serious right at the beginning of the year. On Sunday, the 80,000 residents of Thuringia's third largest district, which directly borders Bavaria and Saxony, will elect a new district administrator. Four candidates are running, but it is already clear that it will result in a duel between the AfD and the CDU. The previous CDU district administrator is no longer allowed to run for office for reasons of age, which is why the AfD hopes to repeat its success in Sonneberg, where it has appointed a district administrator for the first time since June.

A lot of migration in the region

Your candidate is 49-year-old state parliament member Uwe Thrum. The master carpenter and father of four children comes from the district. He is a confidant of the Thuringian AfD chairman Björn Höcke, who, like the entire Thuringian AfD, is classified by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as “certainly right-wing extremist”. Thrum used to be a member of the Schill party, but later joined the AfD because of the many asylum seekers who came to Germany. He now travels through his circle with their classics, speaks against the “anti-German traffic light policy,” warns of “loss of identity through mass immigration,” criticizes “ganging and gender madness” and, above all, calls for a more consistent approach to asylum seekers.

The CDU relies on Christian Herrgott, the general secretary of its party. The 39-year-old officer is the father of two sons, also grew up in the district and is still firmly rooted here today. “I stand for reliability, objectivity and balance,” he says in an almost modest tone from the stage in the hall. He outlines the problems of the region, which is suffering from emigration. They have lost almost a quarter of the population here since 1990, the aging population is increasing, there are only 300 applicants for 700 training places, and almost all sectors are looking for young talent. “We have to welcome people and do something to ensure that they stay,” says Herrgott. He advocates staying together and promises clear leadership. “I learned that as an officer.”