“What he did is embarrassing – to distance himself so demonstratively from his party,” said the 77-year-old Beck to the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” (Saturday). He was Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate from 1994 to 2013.

On Sunday, Rhineland-Palatinate will elect a new state parliament – Beck supports the incumbent Prime Minister Alexander Schweitzer from the SPD. He has to defend his office against CDU candidate Gordon Schnieder.

Said about Özdemir’s election campaign BeckSchweitzer would never distance himself from his party to this extent. “Not because the party is in the foreground, but because people don’t consciously distance themselves from it,” explained Beck.