Armin Laschet’s struggle for a dignified end to his ambitions for power has entered a new phase: the CDU leader continues to believe in Jamaica and at the same time wants to moderate the path to the renewal of the party. At the end of this, however, there can only be his retreat.
It is a strange appearance by Armin Laschet this Thursday evening in the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus, and for that reason alone it will go down in history. The Union’s candidate for chancellor has probably just sealed his end as CDU boss and yet accomplished an amazing rhetorical feat: It is a resignation without naming him a resignation. And because that is so, it’s just a retreat. Maybe. And in installments. But not right now.
It’s an offer. But to whom?
It is probably an offer to all those who like to understand politics as Armin Laschet does. The problem: there aren’t that many of them in his party anymore. And there is certainly no such thing in the sister party CSU.
One had thought that Armin Laschet would now pull hard on the rip cord. Just in time for the person Armin Laschet to end an increasingly desperate and, in the end, seemingly grotesque struggle for power, which may cause him emotional damage. Who knows.
“Political annihilation” instead of an end out of self-protection
An end was expected out of self-protection. In a way, an overdue act of self-respect. The escape from all the malice, the incomprehension, the hardly concealed follow-up discussions behind his back and over his head. Yes, and also the flight from his rival Markus Söder, who in recent months has put obstacles in his way wherever he could in his goal of becoming Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.
It had been thought that Laschet was now paying the tribute for an unprecedented loss of authority, which he must have observed in himself during those dreary days. Well-meaning party friends like North Rhine-Westphalia Labor Minister Karl Josef Laumann had spoken of the “political annihilation of a person”. The “political annihilation of a person” – that is a drastic verdict. It is not an exaggeration.
Insolvency administrator on his own behalf
But Laschet is tinkering with his retreat in installments, as if he had the Sinatra song “My Way” as the main melody in his ear. He still believes a Jamaica coalition is possible, even considers it an ambitious, progressive project. He doesn’t want to slam the door that Markus Söder has already slammed shut. And Laschet wants, so to speak, with the engine running, to work through the devastating election result for the Union and give the CDU a complete overhaul. The CDU leader wants to tread a new path, as it were as the last service to his party, to allow this renewal to proceed differently than all the failed attempts that were to be seen after Angela Merkel’s retirement as CDU leader. Laschet has planned for himself the role that he masters best: he wants to be a moderator.
It’s an ambitious project. Laschet will have to act like an insolvency administrator on his own behalf. That is grotesque enough. So whether the project will succeed is not the most important question. The most important question is whether you can even let him still. Forecast: The cramp will continue.
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