A plan to make it obligatory to display crosses in Bavaria's government buildings has drawn a furious reaction from opposition politicians, and one prominent cleric accused the regional government of hypocrisy ahead of an election.
The arch conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) party, allied with German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives on the national level, faces a stiff challenge from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the October vote. Six months before state elections, the CSU lacks the support it needs to maintain its majority in the state parliament, according to a poll carried out by the Insa research institute on behalf of Germany's Bild newspaper, as reported by dpa. However, support for the CSU has increased in the southern German state over the past four months, the poll suggested. The result showed a rise of 2 percentage points since the same poll was carried out in December.
Premier Markus Soeder's proposal to display the Christian symbol in all regional government buildings is almost certain to be challenged in court for breaching religious neutrality laws. But Soeder said the crucifix was being displayed not as a Christian symbol but as a symbol of the identity of Bavaria, Germany's richest and most conservative state.
"We want to give a clear signal that people have a desire to stress their identity," he said after being photographed affixing an ornate wooden cross, the gift of a former Munich cardinal, to a wall in the premier's office, as reported by Reuters.
Clerics condemned the recent move by the Bavarian state. "Many see as a provocation and hypocrisy the way you speak about Christianity," wrote Burkhard Hose, a priest who ministers to students at Wuerzburg University, in an open letter to Soeder. "Stop this misuse of Christianity and its symbols as a supposed bulwark against Islam," he added.
The CSU is facing a rising challenge from the far right after governing Bavaria without interruption for more than 50 years, and Soeder is under pressure to show he can preserve the dominance that makes his party a powerful lobbyist for its home state in Merkel's Berlin government.
The southeastern state was on the front lines of 2015's migrant crisis when over a million people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia arrived in Germany, fueling support for the AfD. The CSU has distanced itself from Merkel's decision to admit the refugees. Former Premier Horst Seehofer, now federal interior minister, made waves on assuming his new office by stating that Islam "does not belong to Germany." Merkel hit back at a comment from her interior minister who questioned Islam's place in the country, saying that Muslim residents and their religion are part of Germany.
