After the failure of party leader Armin Laschet, the CDU starts the process of electing a new successor. So far, there are a few names in play, but no one has thrown their hat into the ring.
Will Friedrich Merz still make the comeback with a team of women and men at his side? Or does Norbert Röttgen succeed in convincing most of the CDU members of himself?
Will a woman compete or win a surprise candidate that no one has on the list? For the third time within three years, the CDU is looking for a new chairman. Applicants have been nominated since Saturday, and from December 4th to 17th, a member survey will bring clarity about the successor to Armin Laschet, who failed after only one year as party leader.
Already it seems pretty certain: the Christian Democrats will hardly find a superstar as Laschet’s successor. With Merz (65) and Röttgen (56) are candidates who were already in the running after the announced withdrawal of the then Chancellor Angela Merkel from the chairmanship in 2018, but some failed several times. Merz lost in a runoff election to Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer in 2018, and then to Laschet in January of this year. At least Röttgen scored a respectable success in the first ballot.
Not that again, say some in the CDU
Quite a few in the party are now saying: Not them again. And why do only men from North Rhine-Westphalia compete? If you ask around in the CDU, many doubt that Merz is the right candidate for the necessary renewal of the party. In addition, the Sauerland would be 69 years old with a possible candidate for chancellor in 2025. But so far there are hardly any alternatives.
This also applies to Health Minister Jens Spahn (41) – of whom it is said in the party that it is quite possible that he will refrain from running again. It is too unlikely that he will be able to prevail among the members. With his corona policy, he has not only made friends in his own ranks. In the new legislature there is a threat of a committee of inquiry and with it new negative headlines. Not necessarily what a party looking for calm and a new content profile could use.
Group leader Brinkhaus as a compromise candidate?
As a compromise candidate in the CDU, Union parliamentary group leader Ralph Brinkhaus (53) is often named, and economic politician Carsten Linnemann (44) was also given opportunities at times. Linnemann has recently been traded primarily as a member of a Merz team, possibly as the new general secretary.
Brinkhaus should weigh up his chances very carefully – because many see Merz in pole position with the around 400,000 members. Brinkhaus could count on at least defending the parliamentary group chairmanship. But after a compromise in an impending power struggle for his post, he was recently only elected until April. Then a new chairman could reach for the powerful post.
After the disaster in the federal election with a historically poor result, the CDU is torn and unsettled. Which direction does the party want to take in the opposition – more conservative than in the days of Chancellor Angela Merkel, as many of Merz expect? Or should she try to bring back the swing voters who ran away in droves on September 26th? Röttgen is likely to target those who were previously located in the Merkel camp.
Future chairman must prevent division and raise profile
Experienced members of the CDU believe that the party now needs someone at the top who unites three things: He or she must prevent the CDU from dividing and dismantling further if the member’s survey on the chairmanship is narrow. The new chairman must pacify the various camps, include the conservatives and the middle-liberals as well as women more than before, as well as the economic and social wing.
In addition, the newcomer at the top must work to ensure that the CDU is finally recognizable again for the voters – the work on the content and the profile has been idle for too long.
That this cannot be done alone should be clear to anyone with ambitions for the party leadership. For a long time, Merz and Röttgen have been trying to get younger women to work together in their envisaged teams, for example – but the conversations are probably not that easy. After all, who can currently commit to one candidate if the other’s victory threatens to end up with nothing?
Several young women are considered to be future talents
Merz and Röttgen are said to have made contact with the Schleswig-Holstein Minister of Education, Karin Prien, who is considered liberal. Like the deputy head of the Union parliamentary group Katja Leikert from Hessen, she is assigned the office of general secretary. But Prien, it is said, does not want to give up the ministerial office.
Former Bundestag President Rita Süssmuth (CDU) expressly encouraged party friends to run for party leadership at the weekend. “If there is no woman, that would not be a good sign,” she told the editorial network in Germany. And brought the previous ministers of state Annette Widmann-Mauz and Monika Grütters into play alongside Prien.
But other women will also figure out their chances of playing an important role in the future CDU leadership. Silvia Breher, who was elected as deputy chairwoman only two years ago, should want to run again. The previous deputy parliamentary group leader and digital politician Nadine Schön from Saarland is also considered a talent with a future. Just like Serap Güler, who recently entered the Bundestag, she was State Secretary for Integration in Laschet’s NRW cabinet.
Röttgen suffered a setback at the weekend. Its chief strategist in the struggle for party chairmanship at the end of 2020, Ellen Demuth from Rhineland-Palatinate, does not want to enter the race with him again. You have worked well and trustingly with Röttgen, she told the broadcaster ntv. But times changed. Demuth added: “I wish Norbert Röttgen all the best.”
Source From: Stern
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