Press review
Despite the crushing defeat of the Union, Armin Laschet wants to negotiate with the FDP and the Greens. Resistance to this plan is growing in his party. This is how the German press comments on the situation in Laschet and the Union.
Two days after the election, CDU chancellor candidate Armin Laschet was pestered from all sides. Occasionally, calls for his withdrawal are already loud within the party. Laschet himself, however, is not yet ready to give up co-governing. Although the Union fell to 24.1 percent and the SPD became the strongest party with Olaf Scholz, the Union’s candidate for chancellor confirmed on the evening of the election that he was aiming for a Jamaica coalition with the FDP and the Greens – with which the SPD would also like to govern. The Social Democrats derive a clear voting mandate from the result of 25.7 percent.
Resistance to the Laschets strategy is growing in the Union. Lower Saxony’s CDU boss Bernd Althusmann demanded: “We should now humbly and respectfully accept the will of the voters, with decency and attitude. Change was wanted.” Hesse’s Prime Minister Volker Bouffier underlined: “We have no claim to government responsibility.” Junge Union boss Tilman Kuban said: “We lost the election. Period.” The clear mandate lies with the SPD, Greens and FDP. According to a Civey poll for the “Augsburger Allgemeine”, 71 percent of Germans also consider it clear or at least rather wrong that Laschet wants to try to form a government.
Laschet’s departure from Berlin is announced in the German media. However, one does not see the responsibility of the Union debacle with the candidate for chancellor alone – after all, the MPs in the individual constituencies also suffered heavy losses.
The press reviews at a glance:
“Swabian newspaper”: It doesn’t look good for Armin Laschet on day one after the general election. Within 24 hours, some union members seem to have realized that they are only in second place behind the SPD – and that this is not the ideal basis for forming a government. That could decisively accelerate Laschet’s departure from the political stage in Berlin. The best indicator for this is the appearance of CSU boss Markus Söder. He takes part of the responsibility for the bad performance of the Union on his cap and, apparently modestly, backs down on the Union’s claim to government. That’s clever. Because Söder knows very well that the end of the Jamaica option also means the end of Laschet. These messages are still sent in clauses. But this reluctance will give way. If you were Laschet’s confidante, you should urgently advise him to take political responsibility now for everything that went wrong.
“Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung”: It was a crash with an announcement and a long run-up. In the Merkel era, the CDU strengthened power, but lost its political compass – and in some cases also the feeling for the time and the people. What exactly does the party stand for today? What is your brand essence? It is becoming increasingly difficult for the Christian Democrats to answer these questions, which the SPD has been asking for a long time.
“New Osnabrück Newspaper”: Anyone who delves a little deeper into the results of these federal elections will find that the personal responsibility of the candidate for chancellor is not enough to explain the CDU’s election debacle. The CSU also had the weakest result in its history in Bavaria. It continues with the fact that numerous CDU MPs have lost their constituencies. Elsewhere, however, the citizens apparently looked very carefully. Example of Western Pomerania: Young hopeful Philipp Amthor lost to an SPD candidate, as did Julia Klöckner in the south. So there is no simple explanation for the CDU. A great many actors made a great many mistakes. The Union should take its time to decide what will happen now: conceptually and personally.
“Rhein-Zeitung”: Yes, Armin Laschet will lose a lot. That is the price of politics, which gives offices only for a time. As Prime Minister he will not return to North Rhine-Westphalia, there is already eagerly looking for a successor for him. On October 23, it will likely be decided at a CDU state party conference on how to proceed in terms of personnel. But even as the head of the CDU, Laschet will be difficult to keep after this disastrous federal election result. Because the 60-year-old is not a renewer that the party needs so badly. What Laschet may remain at the end of the day is a Bundestag mandate on the state list. That’s not much for someone who set out to succeed Merkel.
“Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung”: Armin Laschet hopes. He hopes that somehow he will still manage to become Federal Chancellor. He will soon have to let go of this hope. Because apart from Christian Lindner, the FDP leader, he has next to no allies who could help him in fulfilling this bold plan. Not today, when the Union elects its new parliamentary group leader in the Bundestag, not in direct talks with the Greens and Liberals, because then two winners will face one loser. If Laschet wants to do his party a favor, then he takes this defeat with him into political retirement and clears the field for another person who, if the traffic light talks fail, could then perhaps be a universally accepted interlocutor. In Munich there would be someone who would at least trust himself to do so.
“Pforzheimer Zeitung”: The CDU is a power machine. It was never about visions, but about securing the chancellorship and managing power and land from this position. Or, in good years, to design. That’s not bad, maybe it’s even sensible, it’s called realpolitik. The principle worked for decades. But now the Union’s definition of realpolitik clashes with reality. And it looks like the CDU and CSU received a lot in the election on Sunday – a memorandum, a resounding slap in the face, the receipt for years of stubbornness – but certainly not a government contract. There is now a lot of talk of a new beginning, both in terms of program and personnel. Armin Laschet is the wrong man for this. Bad enough that he doesn’t realize it. It would be even worse if nobody in the CDU had the courage to tell him that.
“People’s Voice”: The immediate resignation of Armin Laschet would also have caused difficulties for the CDU. But the crashingly failed candidate for chancellor is still in the phase out. Similar to the unsuccessful SPD chancellor candidate Martin Schulz 2017, his disempowerment began on the evening of the election. It will be difficult for him to secure the group chairmanship. Nobody expects that he will still get his “future coalition” together. FDP leader Christian Lindner will not get on board as a loser, but rather seize the chance to distinguish himself as a bourgeois regulator in a traffic light coalition. Possibly Laschet will still accompany the phase of finding a government as chairman. During this time, however, the balance of power in the CDU will change. The CDU will have a new party chairman by next year at the latest.
See in the video: The die has been cast, the citizens have voted. But what’s next? What are the lessons from the federal election? Horst von Buttlar, member of the stern editor-in-chief, explains what the results mean for Laschet and Germany’s economy.
David William is a talented author who has made a name for himself in the world of writing. He is a professional author who writes on a wide range of topics, from general interest to opinion news. David is currently working as a writer at 24 hours worlds where he brings his unique perspective and in-depth research to his articles, making them both informative and engaging.
