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meIt’s kind of strange with Friedrich Merz and the women. You react very strongly to it. But also in a very different way: many reject him like the chauvinists of yesterday. Others adore him as a strong and determined man. Most of those who speak in one form or another do not know him personally. You know their speeches, interviews, tweets. Its surface, one might say, is so shiny that some are dazzled, others are drawn to it. But how do the women of Merz speak, who have treated him for years, who have worked with him at the CDU? We asked five of them.
It is women who were members of the CDU leadership when Merz was also. That was twenty years ago. Merz was chairman of the CDU parliamentary group at the time, after 2002 only deputy. The leader of the group was now Angela Merkel. Merz was also on his party’s federal executive committee. There were also some women. Some of them are still politicians today, some work in other professions, some are retired. Those who are willing to talk about Merz want to remain anonymous. They point out that their work demands neutrality or that they do not want to be drawn into heated public debate about the leader of the right-wing party. No one speaks with a grudge against Friedrich Merz, none scolds, none complains; they all show respect. That says something about Merz, but also something about these women.
Because it’s easy to be outraged by Merz. On the one hand, because it is fashionable right now, like Adidas sneakers and rum cocktails, or like Greta Thunberg. Celebrated big, loved so much. Merz is the anti-Greta. On the other hand, Friedrich Merz behaves like an SUV among many Volkswagen Golf. You don’t have to say anything, your message is already there: space! You can find that man confident or callous like a macho. Anyway, it stands out.
The indictment: “Herrenwitz recharged”
A remarkable number of headlines that Merz has produced in this way deal with the relationship between men and women or the relationship between Merz and women. He makes jokes, the point of which is that there is a reason low storms have female names. Friends of the party publicly commented with “Herrenwitz recharged” (Karin Prien), politicians of the opposite side even with “misogynists” (Saskia Esken, SPD). Friedrich Merz accuses the Chancellor of a lack of support for women; he could easily accuse the Greens of a lack of interest in nature. He calls the quota for women the “second best solution,” but he owes the best, and does not find it problematic that only men are currently running for the CDU presidency. That’s a newsworthy opinion in 2020. Which doesn’t mean they aren’t allowed to represent them, just that many aren’t. A poll from two years ago found that Merz was particularly unpopular with young women, and there is no reason to assume that anything has changed about it.
