CDU sets its sights on victory in Saxony two days before state elections

Two days before the state election in Saxony, CDU Secretary General Carsten Linnemann has set victory as the goal for his party. "The CDU must win, Michael Kretschmer must win. We are playing for victory here," he said at an election campaign event in Chemnitz on Friday evening.

Linnemann accused Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) of not leading Germany. "This country is aimless. This country does not know where it wants to go." He expects a Federal Chancellor to have a vision for Germany. Scholz had also appeared in Chemnitz a few hours earlier.

Prime Minister Kretschmer, on the other hand, is so popular because he shows where things are going and has leadership qualities. "He stands by his opinion. He has attitude. That's exactly the kind of personality this country needs," said the CDU Secretary General. Kretschmer is a "representative of the people in the truest sense of the word".

Dierks: "The aim is to become the strongest force"

"Our aim is to become the strongest force in Saxony as the Saxon CDU in this election," said Alexander Dierks, Secretary General of the CDU in Saxony. The CDU has kept its election promises over the past five years, such as the recruitment of 1,000 additional police officers or the doubling of the master craftsman bonus to 2,000 euros.

"We are fighting to ensure that this Free State will continue to be governed with clear positions and a clear edge over the next five years, but ultimately also with the corners of our mouths turned up," said Dierks. The CDU is campaigning for a state government that specifically states what it intends to do. Examples he cited included a compulsory pre-school year for all children and the introduction of a Saxon border police force.

In the polls, the CDU and AfD have been in a neck-and-neck race for first place in recent weeks. Most recently, the Christian Democrats were narrowly ahead, for example in the trend barometer published on Friday by the opinion research institute Forsa on behalf of the TV channels RTL and ntv (CDU 33 percent, AfD 31 percent).