Of course, there is more to the symbolic visits than testing functionality, journalists suspect: self-portrayal, the depiction of inner-party unity and inter-party power struggles. “The nuclear debate offers the CDU and CSU the opportunity to get the Greens into trouble,” writes the daily News.
self-expression and power struggles
Söder and Merz try to stage themselves as a united voice of reason. The unspoken K-question (which candidate for chancellor will you go to in the next federal election campaign: Merz or Söder?) seems to have been forgotten that day, according to the tagessschau.
On the other hand, Scholz is likely to have used his on-site inspection at the Siemens plant to publicly boot out (still) party members and former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder – without explicitly naming him. On Wednesday a appeared stern-Interview, in which Schröder claimed Siemens was to blame for Nord Stream 1’s gas throttling and the serviced turbine, not the Kremlin. Scholz had Schröder and Russia align: “The turbine can be delivered. Somebody just has to say, ‘I want it’, then it will be there very quickly.”