The Christian Democrats have been struggling with declining membership numbers for decades. The fact that this has now changed slightly is attributed to one person in particular in the party leadership.
The CDU leadership says it has recorded its first slight increase in membership in around 25 years. In the Christian Democrats, as in other parties, the number of members has declined by an average of around two percent per year in recent decades due to resignations and deaths, said the party’s membership representative, Philipp Amthor, after discussions with the CDU leadership in Berlin. If the negative development had continued, the current number of members would have been around 358,000 members. Instead, the central membership file shows 363,381 people with a CDU party register as of October 1st.
The CDU had exactly 363,044 members as of December 31, 2023. According to a spokesman, the SPD had 365,190 members on this date.
Amthor said that the increase was marginal, but important in view of the fact that “it is not a loss of minus two percent”. CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann and Amthor attributed the increase directly to the course and the candidacy for chancellor of party leader Friedrich Merz. There was a positive development, especially between April 30th and September 30th, said Amthor. The CDU party conference with the resolution of a new basic program and also the decision on Merz’s candidacy for chancellor triggered new entries.
CDU asks members about compulsory military service and years of service
According to Amthor, the CDU board also gave the starting signal for a new opportunity for members to participate in party work at the federal level. In the future, the base will be surveyed four times a year on changing topics. The first topic is to obtain the opinion of the members organized in 325 district associations before a fundamental decision by the board on the topics of compulsory military service and the company year planned for December 16th.
Source: Stern
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