The Saarland Prime Minister Tobias Hans (CDU) has warned the CDU against making the use of gender language an election issue. “This is a sham debate,” said the CDU politician to the Tagesspiegel on Sunday.
“We have much more important problems than talking about whether someone is allowed to use gender-sensitive language.”
[Wenn Sie aktuelle Nachrichten aus Berlin, Deutschland und der Welt live auf Ihr Handy haben wollen, empfehlen wir Ihnen unsere App, die Sie hier für Apple- und Android-Geräte herunterladen können.]
The Hamburg CDU chairman Christoph Ploß had called for a gender ban in the official language.
Hans himself, on the other hand, uses gender forms. “If you only speak in the masculine form in front of a group of students from medical faculties, some of whom are 90 percent young women, then suddenly it dawns on you,” said the 43-year-old. “That feels weird.”
The real problem with the CDU in particular is that “we too often sit in halls in which 80 percent are men”. If that changes, nobody will discuss gender-appropriate language either.
