[ad_1]
When politics consisted solely of organization, the Union would win all federal elections for the next 30 to 50 years, with an absolute majority. While parliamentary committees still cannot manage virtual meetings in the sixth month of the pandemic and the chancellor also struggles with sound problems when informing journalists through video, the party’s youth organized an event with American dimensions on Saturday the night in the middle of the crown rules away.
Right next to the Brandenburg Gate, in a representative building in the middle of political Berlin, co-financed by a dozen large corporations and companies, broadcast live on television, Armin Laschet, Friedrich Merz and Norbert Röttgen enter their first direct confrontation. Half of the capital’s press is there, the rest have not received any of the coveted tickets and are watching from home – no wonder, after all, the question of who will be the next CDU president, and for therefore, possibly candidate for chancellor, not answered, but asked. .
The bullfighters arrive fifteen minutes before the start. Well, they stand in front of a wall where JU players can be seen watching the “show” at home on their screens and holding their iPhones with hearts or clapping their hands to indicate approval. Every now and then there is a change to an adjoining room, where “three fan girls and Mister Lost” rate the performance of the candidates in a shared apartment setting: “Well, would you still like a photo with Friedrich Merz?”
The three candidates on stage
Source: AFP / MICHAEL KAPPELER
None of the three gentlemen, of whom the oldest is 64 (Merz) and the youngest 55 (Röttgen), gives in to the temptation of throwing themselves cheaply at their offspring. They are wearing a suit and shirt, Merz’s jacket even has gold buttons, after all Röttgen appeared with an open collar. Robert Habeck would certainly have come with a hoodie and Annalena Baerbock with Chucks, but different rules apply here at JU.
JU as a conservative opposition within the party
The party’s youth favorite is not only the oldest, but also the most conservative candidate according to the general reading: Merz. Because the JU – in previous generations of the CDU a permanent bench for reformers who turned the honorary CDU party into a true people’s party – became a conservative opposition within the party in the Merkel years.
After being elected a year and a half ago, its president, Tilman Kuban, complained about the “conformity” of the parent party under Merkel. She makes up for this by critically asking her board of directors, which gets an appointment at the Chancellery once a year, why there are so few women there. After the last national elections, the European elections in May 2019, the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus internal analysis indicated that a “supposed ‘turn to the right’ of the JU” was partly to blame for the fact that the Union was only open to under 30s. 13 percent came.
“Right” or “conservative” is nothing tonight. The young women wear jeans, the men white sneakers and some wear shirts over their pants. They speak lingo that should sound like an ad agency and a startup: a “pitch” is the audition of the candidates, the questions being added come from the “users” and later that night, when Röttgen pleads with the police to prosecute crimes. the moderator is happy, it is a “really tough cookie”.
At a meeting at the party headquarters three weeks ago, the candidates promised not to harm each other. Consequently, you have to listen carefully to identify any differences. But there is.
“That can’t be true!” Merz says.
Armin Laschet is running as a “Keep it up” candidate. The Chancellor and the CDU have been governing for twenty years, so it cannot be said that everything is wrong. In his opening speech he repeats the rhetorical figure seven times: “I will.” His future scenario for Germany is the present one of his state government of North Rhine-Westphalia. The CDU is ruling with the FDP, it is fighting the bureaucracy with “escape packages”, it is already following the clans, there is even WiFi in schools and fast internet. And in his parliamentary group in Düsseldorf, he had obtained at least eight members of the JU.
Very different from Merz: “This country has become too slow. We have become too lazy ”. Germany lives at the expense of the future, including the young. He wants to change that. Even in his first government statement, it was stated that no more burdens would be shifted into the future. German companies had proven their worth in the pandemic, but the administration and schools had not. There are 14 different implementing ordinances for the General Data Protection Regulation in the federal government: “that must not be true!”
While Laschet essentially doesn’t want any change, Merz strives for it, Röttgen has a third narrative: Changes would come anyway, whether you want it or not. An “epochal break” is imminent: “Neither the country nor the CDU are adequately prepared for what lies ahead.” The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Bundestag refers above all to geopolitical changes, which he only suggests, and technological change: Estonia is Germany is already 20 years ahead of Germany in terms of digitization.
Digitization is the dominant theme and for a long time almost the only theme of the event. Junge Unioner’s main concern is that the deadlocks will eventually be closed, all students will get an iPad, and that they will finally be able to digitally register their car. Candidates outnumber each other: A “digital ministry” must be introduced in the federal government, Laschet says, which already exists in his NRW. Merz responds that the digital ministry would also have to be a “transversal ministry” with all the responsibilities. But Röttgen has presented the best: there must be a “digital digital ministry”. After all, setting a good example is important.
Questions like from a parallel world
At some point, both moderators and connected ‘users’ start asking questions beyond the technology, but they don’t seem to come from corona pandemic Germany and not from the Fridays-For-Future generation, but from a parallel world. No one cares if the prime minister negligently prevented the chancellor from setting stricter rules last week. Or, on the contrary, if Merkel is not too obsessed with the number of infections and is exaggerating the risk. No one asks the obvious question for the CDU, which as party president is considering leaving the chancellor candidate to Armin Laschet. Or how he wants to govern with the Greens as chancellor.
When the topic of climate change came up late at night, Laschet spoke about the fact that CO2 emissions had already been reduced by 36 percent, compared to 1990. Röttgen and Merz praise emissions trading as a Market-based instrument, but it is was introduced ten years ago. Nobody here wants to know if Germany should tax CO2 in the future and how much. Not even if the candidates are in favor of climate-hostile import tariffs, as the EU is currently discussing.
When the 25-year-old host wants to know when he can retire, Laschet has to laugh first. Then you ignore the answer because you don’t want to post a headline that indicates a higher retirement age. Merz thinks that everyone should retire whenever they want. Röttgen dares to be honest: “It will not be kept at the current entry age for the legal pension. We have to increase that to remain reliable. “
In their final statements, the candidates indicate what they want to impress the party congress with on December 4: The CDU must “remain the center party,” says Laschet. The CDU must “become the party of the modern center”, demands Röttgen. He doesn’t want “a break” from the Merkel era, says Merz, but now there is “a new responsibility.”
Of the 100,000 JUers, 70,000 are also in the CDU. Now they can vote for two weeks who they think will be the best next president. In fact, only 100 vote. That’s the number of 1001 party congress delegates who belong to the youth organization.
