Friedrich Merz and the CDU party congress



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meIt was good to postpone the CDU party conference. Was that also a decision on who will be the party president and the candidate for chancellor and, above all, who will not be?

Friedrich Merz’s sharp reaction shows that he fears that: The postponement has nothing to do with the pandemic. Rather, parts of the “party establishment” want to prevent him from being president.

This is a lot, as Merz is questioning the integrity of all those party superiors who pleaded and voted for a postponement with reference to the Corona crisis. Most of the “party establishment” did. You don’t befriend such claims. And the committees will no longer change their decisions. So why is Merz squeezed like this? Is it the surrender or the declaration of war: Merz against the “establishment”?

Many opportunities for internal disputes between parties

Obviously, you are not lonely. He also declared that the decision was an act “against the base of the CDU” and, therefore, he himself was a tribune of the people. There would be a decision against the will of the rank and file if she clearly wanted Merz as president and if, like him, she believed that the postponement was a postponement to her disadvantage.

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In polls on the president’s question, Merz is really ahead. Obviously doubts that it has to continue like this

Now you have created one more reason for this. Party members do not like arguments within their own ranks. For his fighting spirit, Merz will also receive applause from those who have always seen him as the only suitable man for the leadership of the party and the chancellery.

Amid the worsening crown crisis, the ruling CDU party must now also try to keep its own leadership crisis under control. Until the state elections in March, there are still plenty of opportunities for internal party disputes, especially if Merz is to remain the only one representing the true will of the party.

Would the election of a new president in the postponed party congress, in whatever form it takes place, only be endowed with sufficient democratic legitimacy if the winner was (finally) Merz? He is not surprised that his critics of the CDU call him the “Sauerland Trump.”

Berthold Kohler

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