Pressure on Merz: Internal outburst of anger in the Chancellor’s party

It’s Tuesday, after 3 p.m. Friedrich Merz arrives a little late, but speaks longer at his group’s meeting this afternoon. Shortly before the important coalition committee, the Chancellor swore the Union faction to be patient and optimistic. Merz warns that one should not make the situation in the country worse than it actually is. This is what participants report.

But it’s no use. On the contrary. During the meeting, the frustration that has been building up over the past few weeks breaks out among the MPs. Half a dozen speakers, some of whom are well-known, are pressing for information star for reforms, for more pressure on the coalition partner SPD. Some participants then spoke of “a kind of uprising”, others of a debate in which the government was “counted out”.

Sepp Müller, deputy to parliamentary group leader Jens Spahn, begins. He is responsible for the topic of economics. He’s asking everyone involved, says Müller in the direction of the Chancellor, to stop this “crazy”. From their point of view, what crazy means, according to MPs, is that laws are suddenly on the table that restrict companies even more than before.

The impression that has been given to many in the group is that the Social Democrats are not just slowing down when it comes to necessary new reforms. No, what comes from the SPD ministries sometimes falls short of the coalition agreement or goes beyond it in a negative sense.

Parliamentary group vice-president Müller listed at the meeting: With the Collective Bargaining Act, the new EU Sustainability Directive and the renewed equality law for the disabled, we go far beyond what was agreed. The currently planned implementation of the EU sustainability rules alone will cost the German economy an additional 450 million euros.

Then Gitta Connemann stands up. The influential head of the Union’s SME Association (MIT) warns urgently: “The companies are running out of air,” she said, according to participants. She hears this again and again in conversations with the business community. “It’s boiling,” she is said to have said.

The special thing about her criticism: As a representative for small and medium-sized businesses, Connemanns is also a member of the government. She concludes with an urgent appeal: stand up for the companies “The water is up to our necks” and “every additional burden that is created costs substance”. This must finally become clear to everyone.

Other members of parliament, such as the former science minister, are getting in touch Anja Karliczek or the parliamentary group’s disability representative, Wilfried Oellers. The influential head of the Junge Union, Johannes Winkel, also speaks out critically.

“There are long-term costs of over 100 billion euros lurking in the pension package, which were not agreed anywhere in the coalition agreement,” criticized Winkel, according to participants. There is a more fundamental dispute behind this: The critics in the Union accuse the SPD of planning to extend the holding line for pension levels beyond the agreed year 2031. The Union faction expects additional costs of 15 billion per year. “It doesn’t work that way!” says Johannes Winkel.

The growing frustration in the Union is also fueled by falling polls and a real collapse in trust in the government. A recent survey by “Forsa” showed devastating values. 71 percent of Germans are dissatisfied with Friedrich Merz, the CDU/CSU has fallen to 24 percent – two percentage points behind the AfD.

The continued strength of the extreme right is particularly weighing on the mood in the Union. In order to be able to counter the AfD at all, decisive leadership from the Chancellor in the federal government is now required – this view is now gaining ground among the CDU and CSU. At the meeting of the coalition committee, Merz must finally demonstrate this leadership, the MPs demand.

A number of projects have now piled up in the government that need a solution. The Union and SPD had actually wanted to make meetings of the coalition committee regular, routine events. Since the pressure to make a decision is now enormous, given the persistently poor economic situation, this Wednesday’s meeting will have a showdown character.

A fundamental agreement on the abolition of citizens’ money is expected, as well as relief for the car industry, for example by postponing the phase-out of combustion engines. The MPs also expect results in the areas of health insurance financing and motorway financing. Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder is missing several billion euros for projects that have already been planned.

This Tuesday afternoon, the criticism was directed primarily at the SPD. However, attentive listeners also noticed what could be heard in the nuances: the warning that dissatisfaction could quickly spread to the Chancellor.