Merz speech at the CSU: Oh wow, that was nothing (comment)

Opinion

If you only look at the CSU party conference based on the B grade, it went very well for Friedrich Merz. The candidate for chancellor received a friendly welcome. His speech was well received by the delegates from the sister party. Even Markus Söder behaved in a comparatively collegial manner. We are ready to replace the traffic lights, that is what the Union wanted to be understood as a message this Saturday.

Unfortunately, Merz’s performance also revealed his central weakness: superficiality, lack of substance.

Merz wants to run as a change candidate, as a man who will ensure a “change of course” and steer the country in a completely new direction. Merz believes that full control is needed again in migration. A “new will to achieve” is needed in society. The country’s ability to innovate is “too bad”. The social security systems need to be overhauled, even if this will “take a toll on our country.” And the citizen’s money? “Get rid of it,” shouts the CDU leader, which makes the hall cheer as if he had just announced that he would join the CSU.

Big gap – in economic policy of all things

In order not to be misunderstood: Merz’s sentences are essentially not wrong, this country needs a general overhaul, the traffic lights obviously cannot do that. One would just like to know how exactly the CDU chairman actually spells out his program of great change, instead of just being served a few soundbites that an AI could have written.

Merz doesn’t even seem to have come up with anything in the area of ​​economic policy. There is a “fundamental disagreement” between the Union and the Chancellor’s course, he says, and people are really excited to finally hear an idea from a politician that can bring the country forward again. And then comes: actually just a headline. Good rules are needed for all companies instead of billions in subsidies for some. Yes, yes! Applause! Next topic.

Wait – what?

There are still a few questions. How do we keep the industry here? How do we control electricity prices? Is investment needed? Which lead markets should emerge? How should structural change be organized? And what about China? The question of how our economy survives and regains its strength under the current geopolitical conditions is likely to become the key question in the fight for the chancellorship. Scholz is difficult to attack on the field and Merz claims a certain expertise. But here of all places, shockingly little has come from the CDU boss so far.

The Achilles heel of the candidate Merz

Sure, there are still a good eleven months until the federal election. The election program is still being worked on. And Merz still has to answer the unpleasant question of how he actually wants to pay for the change he plans to bring to this country if he simultaneously chains himself to the debt brake. But Armin Laschet has already paid dearly for the mistake of avoiding specification. If Merz wants to lead the country, he has to quickly get out of pure opposition mode – and switch to chancellor mode. Otherwise, the image of a man who talks big but actually has no plan threatens to become entrenched.

The is the candidate’s Achilles heel. Not, as the SPD hopes, his misfires and his temper.