Carsten Linnemann: How a mocked person became Merz’s salvation

There are sentences that CDU members particularly like to hear. Carsten Linnemann has it all. “We take people as they are – not as they should be,” he shouted on Monday in the party conference hall in Berlin’s Estrel Hotel. The cheers are huge. And Linnemann, fighting hoarsely for his voice, could actually speak a little now. Speak more quietly. Allow calm. Enjoy the moment.

What a journey he has had, from the economic policy fringes of the party to the executive floor of the Konrad Adenauer House. Tomorrow the CDU will adopt a new basic program at the party conference, the fourth in its history. And Linnemann will have achieved what he fought for for a long time.

With 91.4 percent, the delegates elected him general secretary on Monday. So far he has held the job on a temporary basis. The boss gave me a new pair of running shoes as a gift. “So that he stays fit,” said Friedrich Merz.

A Linnemann at the goal of his political dreams? Almost there.

Carsten Linnemann and the question of the night

He warned and warned for many years, always in vain. He was laughed at, sometimes even mocked – until the 2021 election night, which proved him right. But by then it was too late. That was when the damage was done. The CDU was bare-bones in terms of content.

Carsten Linnemann, 46, CDU, in the Bundestag since 2009, has made many suggestions in his political career. He called for a social year for everyone and compulsory preschool for children who barely speak German. He has written books about the middle class and edited one about political Islam. And he has dealt with topics that others avoid because they can antagonize their own supporters: tax and pension policy.

In a party where most people just want to govern, he is one of those who has always wanted to think a little bit every now and then. Those who confront their party friends with gaps in content and open flanks: What should the Union implement when it governs? What three beliefs should every party member have ready at three o’clock in the morning?

Suddenly: Secretary General

Linnemann got his chance. Under Merz, he became deputy party leader in 2022, responsible for the new basic program. In this role, he wanted to reorganize the party’s content and prove that there was still life in it. The CDU should learn to walk again, and above all: discover the joy of debate.

Things went well for Linnemann, he was happy, as he repeatedly emphasized. Then Merz had a new job for him in the summer of 2023: Secretary General. Linnemann thought briefly. Then he says yes. After all, he had flirted with this position before and was considered a confidant of Merz anyway. They work similarly. But that was exactly what many in the party saw as a problem. Shouldn’t the CDU leader and the general be able to represent the entire spectrum of the People’s Party together?

Linnemann relieved Merz. That’s how they see it in the party today. He organizes the day-to-day business at the party headquarters. He travels around the country, from district association to district association. He now often takes over the spontaneous attack. Merz can fully concentrate on his appearances as opposition leader and chancellor in the bus shelter. His slip-ups have become less frequent.

Linnemann carries out his new job like he did all his previous tasks: with a demonstrative energy that stands out even in the high-performance world of politics. Always under power. Always impatient that things don’t move any faster. Just do it, is Linnemann’s motto. It’s sometimes difficult for him to simply take a break.

“Friedrich, you have to do this”

He grew up as the son of a family of booksellers in Schwaney, a small town near Paderborn. To this day he represents the constituency there, having won it for the CDU four times in a row. Linnemann studied business administration, received his doctorate in economics as a scholarship holder from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and worked, among other things, as assistant to the chief economist at Deutsche Bank before entering the Bundestag for the first time in 2009. From 2013 to 2021 he was head of the Mittelstandsunion, the neoliberal thought leader of the Erhard heirs. He came across as cold at the time, like a brash business administration kid.

Now hardly anyone mocks him more than Linnemännchen. The fact that Merz made him general secretary is now seen in the party as one of the best decisions the CDU leader has made in the past two years. In his new office, Linnemann has matured into a generalist – and yes, also a potential minister in Merz’s first cabinet.

When the basic program is adopted this Tuesday, Linnemann actually wants to pause for a moment. Be clear about what he has achieved. “It will be a very special moment,” he says. “This will be historic.”

He’s still a long way from reaching his goal. As well as? After all, the election won’t take place until next year. Linnemann will lead the nationwide campaign. This will be new for him – and the entire management team in the Konrad Adenauer House. First up is the K question in late summer. Linnemann has long since answered that for himself. “Friedrich, you have to do this,” he said at the beginning of the year star-Interview.

It sounded quite urgent. Just waiting is not his thing.