Moving into the hall together
According to the party conference management, Merz and North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst should move into the hall together to music. As CDU state chairman, Wüst gives a report before Merz gets on stage. There are no board elections at the meeting of around 670 delegates. Attention should therefore focus on Wüst and Merz.
Wüst was also long considered a potential candidate for chancellor of the Union. The decision was then made in the final spurt between Merz and CSU boss Markus Söder. One day before the announcement, Wüst declared that he was currently not available to run for chancellor and assured Merz of support. However, the Prime Minister kept a door open by emphasizing that a Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia is “always a possible candidate for chancellor” – and one should never say never.
Wüst also relies on his popularity ratings. In the current ZDF “Politbarometer”, the state politician made it back into the group of the ten most popular politicians and ended up in second place – behind Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. Söder and Merz follow at a clear distance.
Migration as a big issue
In addition to a key motion on artificial intelligence (AI), the focus of the party conference is a paper on security and migration, which the state executive committee wrote as a consequence of the suspected Islamist terrorist attack in Solingen that left three dead.
The party conference is also likely to be influenced by the AfD’s successes in the elections in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg.
Relationship with the Greens
In North Rhine-Westphalia, the 49-year-old repeatedly praises the quiet cooperation with his Green coalition partner – most recently on the North Rhine-Westphalia migration package. At the federal level, however, the Union is distancing itself from the Greens.
After the resignation of the federal Green Party leadership as a result of the Eco Party’s failures in the state elections in the east, there could also be words in the direction of the Greens in Münster.
The robot helps
The CDU also vividly demonstrates that the party conference should actually focus on the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence. On stage, robots will assist with beverage service. They should take orders and exchange glasses from the party conference’s daily executive committee.
