After the Union went bankrupt, the pressure on Armin Laschet increased and calls for a reorganization of the CDU were loud. The little sister in particular does not speak well to the candidate for chancellor.
“We will do everything we can to form a federal government under the leadership of the Union,” announced Armin Laschet on the evening of the election in the so-called Berlin round of party leaders and top candidates on ARD and ZDF. The CDU and CSU had just suffered a historic defeat, with 24.1 percent received their worst election result in a federal election and the SPD had to let them pass with 25.7 percent.
But for Laschet this was no cause for self-doubt. He believes that the voters still want him to become Federal Chancellor, because – this is how he justified his claim in the “Berlin Round”: “One vote for the Union is one vote against a left-wing federal government.” And Markus Söder agreed with him: “We firmly believe in the idea of a Jamaica alliance,” emphasized the CSU chief.
Sharp headwind for Armin Laschet
On Monday, both Laschet and Söder suddenly rowed back: “Nobody can derive a government claim from the election result, I didn’t say that on Sunday either,” said the CDU chief, according to participants in a board meeting of his party. “We are ready for other constellations” if a traffic light coalition does not work. The Union must prepare for this and be ready. You must radiate “readiness”.
And Söder made it clear in a meeting of the CSU board: The Union had landed in second place and not first, there was no entitlement to governance – but an offer for talks. Such an offer would be made, but there would be no “ingratiation at any price” from the Greens and the FDP.
In the CDU meeting and the subsequent press conference in the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus, Laschet also admitted personal mistakes in the election campaign and stated that these had to be dealt with. But it is questionable whether his hint of humility can save him the day after the election, because in parts of the Union there is a lot of boiling and calls for consequences are loud – also in terms of personnel.
Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer made it clear on Monday morning before Laschet rowed back: “I see a clear willingness to vote, which has made it clear that the Union is not the first choice this time.” The CDU politician spoke in the MDR of an “earthquake” and warned that “now we need to pause for a moment”. Wrong decisions had been made in the past, “in terms of content, in the government and also in the personnel line-up”. “If we carry on as we have done up to now, I will be very worried about what will be left in four years”.
Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier shares these concerns: “We have a result that a few months ago I could not even have imagined in the worst nightmares,” said the CDU politician before the meeting of the CDU executive committee. One must internally advise on the necessary measures to reorganize the CDU in terms of content and in other respects. The CDU could not address large parts of the swing voters in the middle.
The Rhineland-Palatinate CDU member of the state parliament, Ellen Demuth, became particularly clear after Laschet reiterated his ambitions for chancellor on Monday afternoon: “I wish this tweet was superfluous. I wish there was a self-awareness,” she commented on the CDU’s appearance. Bosses in the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus. “After the questionable PK, all I can say is: @ArminLaschet, you have lost. Please understand. Avoid further damage to the #CDU and step back.”
The former Hessian Justice Minister Christian Wagner sees it similarly: “We need a fresh start, both in terms of personnel and content,” said the co-founder of the conservative Berlin circle in the Union of the “Heilbronner Voice”. “Laschet should take political responsibility for this crash and this catastrophe.” It was her own fault. What would have been missing was a clear strategy, clear content orientation and a clear personnel concept. “And we didn’t put the right candidate at the top,” complained the former CDU parliamentary group leader in the Hessian state parliament. A renewal would also be appropriate in the party presidium, “in which, in some cases, massive attempts have been made against the will of the grassroots to get Armin Laschet through as a candidate in order to prevent Markus Söder and Friedrich Merz.” For Wagner it is clear: “With Söder and Merz we would have achieved a significantly better result.”
Clear Laschet criticism in the CSU board
And Laschet is also blowing a strong wind from the sister party after the union crash: CSU state group leader Alexander Dobrindt criticized in the board meeting of the Christian Socials, according to participants, that there had been weaknesses in the CDU in terms of course, campaign and candidates.
Bavaria’s Junge Union boss Christian Doleschal demanded that one must honestly analyze that the Union did not win this election. The candidate should be mentioned first: he took every faux pas with him up to election day.
The CSU European politician Manfred Weber is said to have reminded internally that Söder had made the offer in the spring to become a candidate for chancellor himself. And with him the CSU would have done much, much better in Bavaria.
And the former President of the Bavarian State Parliament, Barbara Stamm, said, according to the participants, whether the CDU could claim to appoint the Chancellor with this election result, she was skeptical.
The Union of Values, an association of ultra-conservative members of the Union that is not an official party member, even openly calls for Laschet, Söder and the leadership of the Union to end in view of the electoral defeat. “The board of directors and party chairmen of the CDU and CDU must draw the conclusions from the election debacle in the federal election of September 26, 2021 and resign with immediate effect,” the association demands. The boards of directors should be re-elected by all members of the union and not just delegates.
During Angela Merkel’s 16-year chancellorship, the Union had “taken a fatal left-wing course” and was not the strongest force for the first time in a long time. “The federal executive has supported this course and is responsible for the current election debacle,” it said. Should coalition negotiations take place between the Union and other parties, the Union of Values calls for the formation of a government without the participation of the Greens.
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