Bavarian Soap Opera

That was some political poker in Bavaria! At the very last minute, the head of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) literally hit the emergency brake in order to prevent further damage to the party.

The unresolved leadership questions in Stoiber's party hurt voter support for both the CSU and its sister partner, the Christian Democratic Party (CDU). Nevertheless, things may not turn out to be all that bad after all. With Günther Beckstein as the new Bavarian premier and Erwin Huber as new head of the CSU, Stoiber's successors already have a large part of the party and the voters behind them.

Another advantage of this personnel decision is that the CSU chair and the post of the premier will be divided among two individuals -- a move that many party members have been advocating for a long time already. For them, Stoiber was too powerful in his double role.

Stoiber dug his own political grave

The political damage Stoiber caused in this role is sizeable. Now the CSU has to put its money where its mouth is and support a new team of leaders.

For the past few weeks, Bavaria has been witness to an unusual political drama, full of schmooze and hypocrisy, with Edmund Stoiber in the starring role -- not just as the the victim but also mainly as the villain.

It hardly bothered him that Bavaria suffered as a result of the power struggle and that he led the CSU into one of its worst crises to date. But he's responsible for getting himself into this situation in the first place. And in the end, he stumbled on account of one of his critics, a councilwoman in his own party.

The Gabriele Pauli affair, which involved allegations that Stoiber was aware his top aide was snooping in her private life, was just the latest trigger. His downfall began much earlier, in the fall of 2005. At that time he aspired -- enthusiastically at first -- to the post of a super-minister in the new federal government led by Merkel, only to abruptly reject it once he was offered it.

His flip-flopping annoyed all of his potential successors and hurt his credibility. Since then, discontent has been simmering behind the CSU's sanitized facade despite Stoiber's many successes in Bavaria's economy and education sector.

Stoiber was never the sovereign that the Bavarians wanted him to be. Instead, the bland Bavarian premier was more interested in paperwork than in winning the hearts of the citizens.

Nevertheless, if Stoiber had thrown in the towel before the CSU convention this week in the town of Wildbad Kreuth, he would have come away from the affair with a liitle more dignity.

Political weariness

Once again citizens have had to observe incredulously just how easily politics can be defined by power struggles and personalities. And they have experienced yet another top politician who just can't let go of power. Those who wonder why Germany is talking about political jadedness just need to look at Bavaria.

As for Stoiber, he has been the Bavarian premier for 14 years and the head of the CSU for 8 years. He was even the conservatives' candidate for chancellor once. These are all accomplishments that won't count for much after his act of self-destruction so far removed from reality.

Ralf Bosen is an expert on German politics at DW-RADIO (kjb)