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Viewing cable 07MUNICH28, BAVARIA'S NEXT MINISTER-PRESIDENT

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
07MUNICH28 2007-01-19 18:24 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED Consulate Munich
VZCZCXRO3226
PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHMZ #0028/01 0191824
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 191824Z JAN 07
FM AMCONSUL MUNICH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3726
RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUCNFRG/FRG COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MUNICH 000028 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSTIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV GM
SUBJECT:  BAVARIA'S NEXT MINISTER-PRESIDENT 
 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED.  NOT FOR INTERNET DISTRIBUTION. 
 
REFS: (A) MUNICH 15, (B) MUNICH 21 
 
------- 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
1.  (SBU) Bavarian Interior Minister Guenther Beckstein is expected 
to be elected Bavarian Minister-President in early October 2007, 
succeeding Edmund Stoiber.  Beckstein is the longest-serving and 
best-known of Germany's state interior ministers.  His "law and 
order" approach has provided Bavaria a remarkably low crime rate, 
but led to criticism that he is anti-foreigner.  Beckstein is not 
afraid to criticize U.S. policy, but has maintained a good working 
relationship with Consulate General Munich - a relationship we 
anticipate will continue during his Minister-Presidency.  While 
Beckstein is largely untested outside of the Interior Ministry, we 
anticipate he will work constructively with the Merkel government to 
the extent that doing so does not conflict with Bavaria's perceived 
provincial interests.  End Summary. 
 
---------------------- 
NO LONGER A BRIDESMAID 
---------------------- 
 
2.  (U) Following Bavarian Minister-President Stoiber's unexpected 
decision in November 2005 to not take a federal cabinet position, 
conventional wisdom was that Bavarian Interior Minister Dr. Guenter 
Beckstein, at 63, had missed his best, and perhaps final chance to 
lead Bavaria as Minister-President.  The popular and respected 
Beckstein had played bridesmaid twice - when Stoiber ran for Federal 
Chancellor in 2002 and lost, and again in fall of 2005 when Stoiber 
returned to Bavaria.  Only at the eleventh hour of Stoiber's most 
recent political crisis (Ref B), did Beckstein's name surface again 
- this time as the compromise candidate to take over the helm of 
Germany's largest and most independent state from the free-falling 
Stoiber. 
 
3.  (U) In an arrangement worked-out by the Christian Social Union 
(CSU) leadership, Beckstein is expected to be elected 
Minister-President by the State Parliament (Landtag) Caucus in 
October 2007.  He would then face the full-electorate in fall 2008, 
giving him, if re-elected as expected, a five-year term as 
Minister-President.  While it is unclear if Beckstein would seek to 
remain in office until 2013, or turn-over the reins of power 
mid-term, he will be viewed essentially as a transitional leader 
regardless, serving until the CSU is able to agree on its next 
generation of leadership. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
GERMANY'S LONGEST-SERVING STATE INTERIOR MINISTER 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
4.  (U) Beckstein is the longest-serving and best-known of Germany's 
state interior ministers.  In October 1988, during a cabinet 
reshuffle following the death of Minister-President Franz Josef 
Strauss, Beckstein entered the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior as 
a State Secretary, serving under then Interior Minister Edmund 
Stoiber.  In the 1993 succession struggle between Stoiber and Theo 
Waigel for the Minister-President position, Beckstein supported 
Stoiber and challenged Waigel openly at a district convention. 
After his nomination as Minister-President, Stoiber chose Beckstein 
to be his successor as Interior Minister -- a position he has held 
ever since. 
 
5.  (U) Guenther Beckstein was born on November 23, 1943 in 
Hersbruck, near Nuremberg.  He is married to a teacher who he says 
is his best advisor, and has three children.  He studied law in 
Erlangen and Munich and began working as a lawyer in 1971.  He 
entered the Bavarian Landtag in 1974.  From 1980 to 1988, he was 
Chairman of the CSU Committee on Police Affairs.  In 1987, he was 
defeated in a bid for Lord Mayor of Nuremberg.  Beckstein is active 
in the Evangelical (Protestant) Church of his home community, and 
would be Catholic Bavaria's first non-Catholic Minister-President. 
 
------------- 
LAW AND ORDER 
------------- 
 
6.  (U) Beckstein has the reputation of being a hardliner Interior 
Minister and, according to "Spiegel" magazine, is "the toughest of 
the tough."  A subscriber to the "broken-window theory" of proactive 
law enforcement, Beckstein is proud that Bavaria has the lowest 
crime rate of all German states.  He opposed the Schengen agreement 
which provided for an abolition of border controls between EU 
states, on the grounds that it would complicate Bavarian efforts to 
keep tabs on criminals and other undesirables.  Like many of his CSU 
colleagues, he supports electronic and other surveillance of 
individuals and groups considered a threat to public order, 
including Islamists and right-wing extremists, but also groups such 
 
MUNICH 00000028  002 OF 002 
 
 
as the Church of Scientology (COS).  In that regard, Beckstein has 
been critical of the State Department Human Rights Report, which 
criticizes Germany for alleged discrimination against the COS and 
its members. 
 
7.  (U) Beckstein's aggressive style has led critics to argue he is 
hostile to foreigners - a claim Beckstein vigorously denies - 
unless, that is, the foreigners fall on the wrong-side of the law. 
Indeed Beckstein has made a point of demonstrating his "social" 
side, including recruiting ethnic Turkish police officers and 
establishing good contacts in the Muslim community.  In 2006 he 
joined a protest march against Iranian President Ahmadinejad. 
Beckstein was also bestowed with the "Jerusalem Award 2006" of the 
World Zionist Organization and the Zionist Organization of Germany 
for having "broadly contributed to Jews being able to live in 
security and peace in Germany." 
 
--------------------------- 
A NO-NONESENSE INTERLOCUTOR 
--------------------------- 
 
8.  (SBU) Conversations with Beckstein tend to be direct and 
productive.  Beckstein is usually well prepared, listens carefully, 
and speaks his mind bluntly.  With Beckstein at the helm of the 
State Chancellery, we expect a very different political style than 
that of his predecessor.  Stoiber was often criticized in recent 
years for exerting an almost autocratic rule, with a lack of 
consultation of the Landtag and national CSU Caucuses.  He enjoyed 
the respect and sometimes admiration of his compatriots, but never 
their love.  In contrast to the workaholic and wonkish Stoiber, 
Beckstein embodies more the "landesvater" type of personality with a 
good sense of humor and active life outside politics.  His carnival 
costumes (such as Bavarian Lion, Madame Pompadour or Albert 
Einstein) are legendary. 
 
9.  (SBU) Beckstein is not afraid to criticize the U.S. when he 
feels it appropriate.  Last year, in an interview with "Focus" 
magazine he characterized the conditions of the U.S. Guantanamo Bay 
detention facility as "clearly illegal," and damaging to the U.S. 
reputation as a human rights leader.  Beckstein has also made clear 
his opposition to Turkish EU accession - a view in step with the CSU 
rank-and-file.  In conversations with us, he has expressed his hope 
that the U.S. would be more forthcoming in sharing intelligence and 
law enforcement information with Bavarian authorities.  He 
enthusiastically agreed to Consulate Munich's suggestion to have 
Interior Ministry officials participate in the Consulate's emergency 
preparedness exercises, sending two experts to the most recent 
crisis management exercise. 
 
------- 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
10.  (SBU) Beckstein's lack of a track-record on issues outside the 
security realm makes it difficult at to assess his future agenda as 
Minister-President.  There are few public Beckstein statements on 
economic and social issues, such as reform of the German health care 
system.  "Die Welt" on January 19 noted that "excursions by 
Beckstein into other than domestic fields of politics are 
practically unheard of." 
 
11.  (SBU) We anticipate Beckstein's relationship with Chancellor 
Merkel will be a net improvement over the essentially poisoned 
personal and professional relationships Stoiber had with Merkel. 
Beckstein's pragmatic approach allowed him to build a close working 
relationship with former Social Democrat Federal Interior Minister 
Schily in the Schroeder government - we would expect this pragmatic 
approach to underpin his relations with the Merkel government as 
well.  Having said that, Beckstein is true-CSU, and as Germany's 
only one-state party with an absolute hold on power in Bavaria, the 
CSU is all about "Bavaria-first."  When Bavaria's perceived 
provincial interests collide with those of the federal government, 
as most recently with healthcare reform, Beckstein can be expected, 
like his predecessors, to show his allegiance to the "Freistaat 
Bayern" over Berlin.  End Comment. 
 
12.  (U) This report has been coordinated with Embassy Berlin. 
 
13.  (U) Previous reporting from Munich is available on our SIPRNET 
website at www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/munich/ . 
 
NELSON