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KWonderful things are happening three weeks before the CDU party conference, which will take place digitally on January 16 and will culminate in the election of a new president.
Armin Laschet, for example, prime minister of North Rhine-Westphalia and one of the three candidates for the position of party leader, seems to have taken pleasure in exercising humility. Even before Christmas, he apologized to citizens who were no longer able to see their dying family members in March and April because nursing homes and nursing homes had been sealed off due to Corona.
He asked students and parents to forgive school closings. He called them both “wrong”. On Tuesday, Laschet continued the Sorry series and spoke at the “Kölner Stadtanzeiger” of a “duty” to apologize to the victims of Cologne’s New Year’s Eve five years ago for failing to protect them. Laschet was not yet prime minister.
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It fits in with his humble tone that put the question in perspective when asked if he, as a possible leader of the CDU, would claim the Union’s candidacy for chancellor. He recently announced that he could also imagine the head of CSU, Markus Söder.
“If a CDU president were to rule out the possibility of a CSU president, that is not part of the justice we need,” he said at an event where he presented a biography of the Bavarian prime minister.
A CDU chief, Laschet continued, should generally show respect for the sister party and say, “Both are conceivable.” The issue doesn’t have to be decided so quickly anyway. Laschet named the period after state elections in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate in March. In doing so, it fulfilled the wish that the CSU has been expressing for months.
Even Merz is more defensive
The current president, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, however, had always asked for more haste and, on such occasions, always referred to the election of the head of the CDU as a clear preliminary determination for the candidate for chancellor.
In June he said, for example: “First we will redefine the presidency of the CDU. From our point of view, he has the first right to run for chancellor ”. In October, he still spoke of “I want this issue to be resolved quickly and the discussions to end.”
But now all the candidates for successors are being overwhelmed. Foreign politician Norbert Röttgen is as willing to decide on the candidate issue in the spring as is former leader of the parliamentary group Friedrich Merz. He was “more of the opinion that we should decide that soon,” Merz said Monday. “But there are also good arguments to say that we should do this together with the CSU at a later time.”
And on the question of the chancellor candidate, Merz was more defensive than before. The Union faces a very tough federal election campaign. “That’s why the incumbent comes first – what is the optimal setup, both in terms of staff and content for both parties – CDU and CSU.”
Before anything is proclaimed, the CDU and CSU would talk to each other. “I am not one of those who say: access rights. Nobody has the right of access ”. In July, Merz came into play as chancellor of a black-green government.
But Norbert Röttgen was the first to declare in the summer that it would be a “great achievement” for the entire Union if, after 16 years of CDU in the Chancellery, a CSU politician were to move. Röttgen indicated that he was satisfied only with the direction of the party. Meanwhile, this strategy is proving to be so tactically clever that the other two candidates are copying it.
The two personnel problems are closely related
Söder has a large following at the CDU. And it will be more instead of less. This contributed to the fact that, despite or due to the constant postponement of the election, none of the three candidates emerged as a clear favorite.
More recently, Röttgen in particular was able to gain ground in polls among CDU supporters. He finishes second behind Merz and ahead of Laschet. For example, in an internal vote of the Junge Union. When he applied at the beginning of the year, no one expected him to do that.
Furthermore, the question of the chancellor candidate is now clearly in focus. One thing is for sure: in January 2021, many congressional delegates from the CDU party will base their decision in their new boss on who they favor as a candidate for chancellor.
Söder’s supporters at the CDU would have had to elect Röttgen until now to be reasonably sure that Söder would be a candidate. Some speculated that Laschet might not be strong enough to warn Söder. But that was a pretty vague perspective.
According to the latest statements, delegates can expect all three to get closer to Söder. However, the change in strategy in the case of Laschet and Merz comes too late. It is questionable if that will continue to work.
In an interview with WELT, the eastern commissioner of the federal government, Marco Wanderwitz (CDU), said that many supporters had now been “baffled” because Merz had made it clear that he wanted both the presidency and the candidacy for chancellor. “The group of those who consider Markus Söder as the best candidate for chancellor has grown considerably in Saxony in recent weeks and months. I also belong to this group. ”
Söder is particularly popular in the east and anyway in the south. But even in the north, he gained sympathy for the crisis in the crown.
A week ago, Schleswig-Holstein Prime Minister Daniel Günther WELT said: “Obviously, it is paying off that Markus Söder is a successful Prime Minister. A lot of people honor this, not just in the south of the country, by the way, but also here in the north. ”
Therefore, Söder will have a very important voice in the question of who will be the Union candidate for Chancellor in the Bundestag. Günther supports Laschet in the election of the head of the CDU.
The biggest doubt about whether he would really be willing to give up the chancellor candidacy is, without a doubt, in the case of Merz; even after your recent comments. They also contain a remarkable revealing comment.
When asked if Söder could be chancellor, Merz said: “There are at least two prime ministers in Germany who, according to the job description, are always eligible for this. These are that of North Rhine-Westphalia and that of Bavaria. ”
However, never in the history of the Federal Republic has a Prime Minister of Bavaria or North Rhine-Westphalia become Chancellor.
