At a party congress, the chairman, presidium and federal board are to be re-elected, said CDU Secretary General Paul Ziemiak after the deliberations of the party bodies on Monday in Berlin. The members should be more involved. However, it was initially unclear when and through which procedure a decision on the new party leader should be made.
Ziemiak announced that a district chairperson conference will be convened on October 30th. The aim is to clarify whether there should be a member survey. This in turn depends on when a federal party congress can take place at which the entire party leadership is then formally to be elected. The turn of the year is targeted.
CDU leader Armin Laschet, who announced his withdrawal from the party leadership last week, will moderate the process, said Ziemiak. Laschet himself had announced that after the election defeat, the presidium and board would have to be re-voted. At the federal party conference there should also be a vote on the Secretary General, said Ziemiak. After the election, there was not only criticism of Laschet, but also of the CDU campaign, for which Ziemiak is responsible.
It also remained unclear whether there would be a consensus candidate for the party leadership, as Laschet had wished, or whether there was a threat of a renewed candidate for the office of party chairman. In the federal executive committee, a number of participants had called for a “CDU team” to avoid this, said Ziemiak. But he could not say who would ultimately be party leader.
The chairman of the CDU parliamentary group in Saxony-Anhalt, Siegfried Borgwardt, had therefore spoken out in favor of a decision at the district chairperson’s conference in Magdeburg and indirectly opposed a member survey. This was particularly demanded by younger CDU politicians. In a – formally non-binding – member survey, the economic politician Friedrich Merz, for example, is given good chances. A federal party congress will have to follow the mood of the members, according to CDU circles.
