The race for the CDU executive chair has begun!
After the announced withdrawal of party leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, ex-union faction leader Friedrich Merz threw his hat into the ring on Wednesday evening – but not directly. From his environment it was said that he would run as a candidate, he himself has not yet said it clearly and publicly.
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Armin Laschet and Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn, who also just announced on Wednesday that he would like to take responsibility, are further contenders.
According to BILD information, rivals Merz and Laschet met surprisingly on Thursday afternoon.
Both took part in a board meeting of the CDU Economic Council in Berlin. Merz is Vice President of the Economic Council. Laschet should speak as a guest speaker on economic development (“New dynamics for Germany and Europe”). Participants reported that the two competitors greeted each other with a handshake.
Also present are the President of the Economic Council, Astrid Hamker (Piepenbrock AG), Hesse’s ex-Prime Minister Roland Koch (CDU), Bettina Würth, Hildegard Müller.
THE MERZ-SPEAK
In the evening, Friedrich Merz made a highly anticipated speech in Berlin and spoke for a long time about social and global political changes. It was an application speech to the chancellor …
“What happened there in Thuringia was completely unacceptable,” said Merz at the SME forum. And he issued against the Groko: “The grand coalition in Berlin has seriously damaged the culture of controversy in the political center.” Now this state is there without a prime minister and without a minister. That was “not a state crisis, but a political crisis,” said Merz.
This crisis was triggered by the shifting of the political discussion to the edges, right and left. For him it was clear: “There is no cooperation with these people, period!”
The blame for the misery is also the fact that the FDP did not get involved in the Jamaica coalition, so that it was not the SPD but the AfD that became the largest opposition party.
Merz chopped on Chancellor Merkel: “The strengthening of the political margins is also a result of perceived lack of leadership.” Then he packaged it as praise – to the story: “The CDU and CSU have to clarify a whole range of factual questions: That means at all not that it is a break in the past 15 years. They belong to the history of the CDU / CSU and to the history of Germany. As a result, these 15 years were good years for Germany. ”
When he spoke about world politics, Merz spoke about the rise of China and the withdrawal of the USA from its global role. “The Trump phenomenon does not go away,” said Merz. “It concerns us indirectly and directly,” he said, Germany had to ask itself whether it had to do more abroad.
He also spoke about “Fridays for Future”: Today, young people should call the parliaments and give concrete solutions. Addressed to Greta Thunberg, he said: “Girls, there was no better youth like you in any generation in the world!” The hall applauded.
This is how Merz answers the K question
▶ ︎If the concrete question the hall was waiting for – “Are you going to become a candidate for Chancellor?” – he answered differently: “We are now holding talks with each other … etc.” and the aim is for the Union to emerge stronger in the next Bundestag election. Another request, same answer: “It seems that the audience here in the hall is less interested than the journalists here”. There were other questions, Merz asked to be asked, but it didn’t help: he didn’t want to say whether he was going to run for the CDU chairmanship and for the candidacy for chancellor.
One answer: “You have to allow us to take a few days for a process that started very eruptively on Monday. It’s not a fair, where you say which carousel you climb. The Union may have only one litter left. Then we must also have the right to talk about it in peace. ”
And about reports that he is running: “I have read the reports, including those of the BILD newspaper”. Demand: And are they correct? Merz: “Has the BILD newspaper ever written something that is not correct?”
BILD explains the schedule for the CDU power struggle
First of all: The schedule for the succession plan that AKK is aiming for seems to be invalid. The plan was to find a candidate for chancellor by summer and then elect him as chairman at the party conference in December.
In view of the criticism of this plan, the Adenauer House now made it clear that Kramp-Karrenbauer on Monday in the Presidium was expressly “asked by leading CDU politicians not to give an appointment for the election of a new party chairman in order not to build up time pressure”.
Users of the BILD app vote here: Who should now be the CDU leader?
▶ ︎ The coming week should look like this:
According to information from CDU circles, it is possible that Kramp-Karrenbauer will meet with CSU chief Markus Söder this weekend (February 15/16) on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference and talk about the procedure. However, that is not certain.
Kramp-Karrenbauer plans to hold talks with interested parties for the party chairmanship by the middle of next week. The advance of Merz should initially not change much in these plans. AKK had announced that it would lead the process of finding a new CDU chairman from the beginning, and that it would do this together with Söder on the subject of candidacy for chancellor.
Users of the BILD app vote here: Who should become the candidate for chancellor of the Union?
▶ ︎ February 24:
On Rose Monday, the CDU Presidium meets for a regular meeting. Then it should be decided whether and when there will be a special party conference.
A party convention could take place no earlier than eight weeks after such a decision.
▶ ︎ May June:
The special party conference could theoretically take place at the end of April, but according to BILD information it should be scheduled for May or June. A provisional party leader could be elected there, which would then have to be confirmed by a regular party congress.
▶ ︎ December 4th to 6th:
The CDU wants to hold on to the party convention in Stuttgart, which is scheduled for the beginning of December. Among other things, the party’s new fundamental program is to be decided on and the party leader, if any, is to be confirmed.
– ,
