Before the Union’s talks with the FDP and the Greens, the CDU seems confused to many. Fewer and fewer people believe that Armin Laschet can finally save himself to the Chancellery. And what does Markus Söder do?
Again, it is not Armin Laschet who sets the pace two days before the start of the preliminary talks on a possible Jamaica alliance with the Greens and the FDP.
«We are ready for Jamaica. We are ready for quick talks, for compact and, above all, for very concentrated talks ”- these sentences were not said by the CDU boss and candidate for Union Chancellor on Friday. They come from Markus Blume, the general secretary of the CSU. After a switch from the CSU Presidium, he added: “We as the CSU want to do everything we can to ensure that the opportunity that exists is used.”
It is quite possible that Blume’s words sound like mockery to the ears of some in the CDU leadership. CSU boss Markus Söder spoke of the “clear goal” of Laschet becoming chancellor on the evening of the election. But in the days after that, completely different tones can be heard from mighty Bavaria. “Olaf Scholz currently has the best chances of becoming chancellor – clearly,” he said on Tuesday. For many in the CDU, the CSU boss looks like he wants to make Laschet look weak and insecure, as he did during the election campaign months.
Blum’s appearance shows one thing above all: The CSU wants and must – especially after the back and forth in the appointment process – avoid under all circumstances the impression that the Jamaica explorations on Sunday with the FDP and on Tuesday with the Greens do not have the necessary importance to be measured. Because one thing is clear: If the targeted alliance does not come about, the blame should not remain with the CSU. Because within the CSU, a majority no longer believes in Jamaica.
One thing is stable and reliable about the Union: the sister quarrel
Green parliamentary leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt had told the newspapers of the Funke media group on Thursday with a view to the talks with the CDU / CSU: “I do not see at the moment that the Union could be considered capable of probing, let alone capable of governing.” Internally, too, the Greens and the FDP are said to have signaled to the Union that it must first be clarified how stable a joint government could be. Because only one thing seems stable and reliable in the Union since the election: the sister quarrel. And centrifugal forces are growing at the CDU.
Apparently, many in the CDU are preparing more intensively to get one of the few powerful posts remaining in the opposition than for possible Jamaica negotiations. In the struggle for the parliamentary group chairmanship on Tuesday, economic expert Friedrich Merz and incumbent parliamentary group leader Ralph Brinkhaus (CDU) clashed. In a small group: In addition to Laschet, Merz and Brinkhaus, according to a “Spiegel” report, which was also confirmed by the German Press Agency, foreign politicians Norbert Röttgen and CDU Vice Jens Spahn, the Minister of Health, were there.
Like Laschet, they all come from North Rhine-Westphalia, and they all want to continue to play an important role in the party in a post-Laschet period. In the course of the exchange, writes the “Spiegel”, Merz even slammed a glass with orange juice on the table. Once again, there is no friendship among the CDU party friends. And that doesn’t look like a stable CDU either.
On Friday, Merz, whom Laschet had brought into his “future team” in the final phase of the election campaign, then publicly vented his anger over the disastrous election result. “The CDU has become lazy to think,” he says in the Funke newspapers. The CDU had “forgotten how to work thematically”. He is preparing to be “a normal and hopefully good MP”. That doesn’t sound like Merz trusting Laschet to forge a Jamaica alliance. Because actually Merz would have liked to become a minister.
How long Laschet can hold out is open. There is only one thing left for him at the moment: He has to rely on the talks with the FDP and the Greens – despite all internal cross-cuts. Although some in the CDU leadership believe that there will initially only be coalition talks between the SPD, the Greens and the FDP, Laschet probably hopes that these could ultimately fail due to irreconcilable substantive differences. Then the Union would be back in the game.
Söder and Laschet at Stoiber’s birthday party
And Söder? At the beginning of the week he had already emphasized what to do now, setting the course for the Bavarian state elections in two years. Then he has to deliver, then he alone is responsible. One thing is clear: Söder will probably never be able to match the election results of his long-time mentor, the former CSU boss and Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber. Stoiber’s peak value in a state election was beyond the 60 percent mark.
As luck would have it: the CSU wanted to celebrate Stoiber’s 80th birthday on Friday evening. Söder – and Laschet were announced. As a reminder: Angela Merkel gave Stoiber the candidacy for chancellor in 2002 – the CSU man narrowly failed. The Union with Stoiber got 38.5 percent at that time, only 6000 votes less than the SPD. With Laschet, the Union came to only 24.1 percent this time.
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