A year ago, CDU leader Friedrich Merz fired his general secretary. Since then, Mario Czaja has remained silent. In a book, he now presents a look ahead.
In view of stagnating poll ratings for his party, former CDU General Secretary Mario Czaja is calling for a stronger integration of East German experiences. “In many questions, East Germany can serve as a role model for the transformation processes that are taking place throughout Germany,” writes the Bundestag member one year after being thrown out by party leader Friedrich Merz in a book entitled “How the East is saving Germany. Solutions for a new coexistence.” It will be published on August 12.
Czaja expressly does not want the book to be understood as a reckoning, but rather as an assessment and a look ahead with concrete solutions as to how the gap between East and West can be overcome. “There was and is no reason for a reckoning,” he told the German Press Agency in Berlin.
Merz replaced Czaja in July 2023 after around one and a half years with the Bundestag member and economic expert Carsten Linnemann. There was dissatisfaction with Czaja in the party at the time. The CDU has long been polling at just over 30 percent. There are voices within the party who consider this figure too low given the desolate state of the traffic light government.
“The East can save Germany”
“The East can save Germany,” writes Czaja. In a year with state elections in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg, “in which the East is again in danger of being portrayed in the public eye as a problem area for the chronically ungrateful, rebellious and latently right-wing radicals,” he wants to look ahead critically but confidently. “We have more to offer than just the ‘green arrow’ on the traffic light,” he stresses.
For a revision of the incompatibility decision regarding the Left Party
In terms of content, Czaja is calling for a revision of his party’s incompatibility resolution, according to which cooperation with the Left Party is ruled out just as much as with the AfD. “I have always thought the incompatibility resolution, which equates the AfD and the Left Party, was wrong,” Czaja told the dpa. “The Left Party in eastern Germany is a social democracy with a large East German influence,” he added. Anyone who equates the two parties is trivializing the AfD.
Czaja told “Focus” that he thought it was wrong that the CDU in Thuringia had not spoken to the Left Party about forms of cooperation after the last state election. “It didn’t necessarily have to be a coalition. At the time, for example, there was the idea of forming an expert cabinet made up of cross-party minds,” Czaja told the magazine. He said he was not an advocate for the Left Party, but “the Left Party has dealt intensively with its responsibility for the wall and barbed wire, more so than the bloc parties, by the way.”
Reluctant to comment on Wagenknecht’s BSW
With regard to a possible collaboration between his party and the “Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance” (BSW), Czaja is cautious in the book. It is still far too early to evaluate the BSW. Collaboration at the local or state level must be determined based on the program and the people involved. State elections are taking place in Thuringia and Saxony on September 1st, and in Brandenburg three weeks later. With double-digit poll results in the three states, the BSW could become a power factor in forming a government.
Czaja about Merz
Czaja describes his dismissal in detail, which he said came as a surprise. The language that Merz originally intended to use was a provocation for him. “Not a single sentence about what has been achieved. Mostly praise for his decision to make the change now.” He clearly criticized Merz for this. “It was almost bizarre when he replied that he could understand my displeasure and that this text did not come from him but from his consulting agency. I should just correct it and adapt it. Another affront, in my opinion.” Merz did not take the time to reassess the path we had taken together.
Merz had “obviously made his decision based on highly subjective assessments”. The chairman was disappointed “that, although he had involved the liberal forces in the party leadership and, for example, had taken their positions into account in the party’s reorientation by agreeing to the women’s quota, he was met with further opposition from there”. Merz increasingly felt the disappointment of the conservative forces in the party, “from whose perspective he had delivered too little of what they actually expected from him as party chairman”.
Added to this were “his poor approval ratings in public and especially among women,” writes Czaja. These poor ratings made it clear “that he did not appear credible enough in the conservative spectrum and politically balanced and attractive enough to liberal voters.” Merz wanted to get out of the dilemma “by focusing on his core brand – as an experienced European politician, economic expert and conservative.”
Do not banish Russia from the “House of Europe” forever
Czaja calls for an emancipated foreign and security policy. The term “House of Europe”, in which the then Chancellor and CDU leader Helmut Kohl always saw Russia, should “not be banished to the archives forever”. The “longing for peace and stability in Europe, which is strongly expressed across party lines in East Germany, should finally be more strongly reflected in all tactical considerations in German foreign policy”. Despite all the great guilt that “the Putin regime” has incurred through the Ukraine war, there will also be a time afterward.
Special funding zones, children’s start-up capital, DIN East and East quota
Czaja calls for the “healthy scepticism of many East Germans towards ‘the authorities’, learned over generations”, to be used as a seismograph. The East CDU must be able to break free from the “West German grip and make independent decisions”. More investment than before must be made in research and development structures in order to enable the middle class in East Germany, which is much smaller and less well positioned in terms of capital, to participate in technological progress.
Special support zones are intended to put the East German economy on the fast track. To achieve this, more support is needed for early childhood and school education. In view of the unequal distribution of wealth, Czaja is calling for a “child start-up capital” – a basic fund of 10,000 euros for every child growing up in Germany. In addition, an Eastern quota staggered by federal and state levels is necessary. 20 percent of the management positions in federal ministries must be filled by East Germans.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
