Friedrich Merz and the CDU: always new trouble for the boss

Friedrich Merz has received a video message. An Easter greeting to the citizens of the country, which he wants to rule soon. In the three-minute clip, which was spread on Holy Saturday, the presumably future chancellor says that Easter is a time of pausing. If he looks back now, it was more of a time to drive out of the skin.

Three prominent CDU people have made headlines and debates in the past few days that the party leader cannot like. In a nutshell, the situation looks like this: Carsten Linnemann does not take part, Jens Spahn is trouble, and Julia Klöckner lives up for the fears that some connected to the Bundestag president with her appointment.

But in turn. Carsten Linnemann had announced a few days before Easter, which Merz recognizes in his message as a time of cooperation: but without me. The CDU general secretary does not want to switch to the government. Linnemann did not do the Ministry of Economic Affairs, also because the previous super ministry of Robert Habeck lost numerous skills and responsibilities in the black and red coalition negotiations. Linnemann is said to have dreamed of a super ministry in which the departments of business and work should be united. It is no different to interpret Linnemann’s sentence, with which he justified his rejection: “It also has to fit.”

Merz is faced with a tricky task. He has to find someone for the Ministry of Economic Affairs who not only looks like a replacement solution for Linnemann. In the parliamentary group, there is not really someone, especially since Julia Klöckner has been supplied with a post and Jens Spahn certainly does not want to serve as Linnemann 1B.

The speculation therefore also revolves around an external line -up. Former Hessian Prime Minister Roland Koch, an old companion of Merz, who also worked in business, albeit with a mixed success, would be a respectable solution. The former member of the Bundestag and temporary parliamentary State Secretary Katherina Reiche has also been under discussion since the weekend. It now runs an energy group.

The problem: Merz would have to win a man or a woman from the outside, who may also work in an attractive job, for a ministry that Linnemann has now put the stamp “too insignificant”. And he would have to convince his own parliamentary group that nobody is suitable in their ranks. MPs who have tortured themselves through Bundestag committees and working groups do not like to hear something like this.

Merz Next problem is Jens Spahn. He is a hot favorite on the parliamentary group leader, but considered it to be indicated that it has been a debate about dealing with the AfD. Spahn recommended “to handle the AfD as an opposition party in the procedures and processes such as with any other opposition party”. This debate also went into Easter and was by no means contemplative. Lars Klingbeil’s SPD chairwoman rated it as a “foul against Friedrich Merz when such debates are launched in the Union, shortly after he negotiated a coalition agreement with us”. There were also opposition to Spahn’s advance from our own ranks. “I find this whole debate as superfluous as it is harmful,” said Dennis Radtke, the chairman of the CDU social wing of the “taz”. And Merz himself, as a leader of parliamentary group, actually called to comment on parliamentary procedural issues? He is silent. Probably also because by joint coordination with the AfD about an application for migration, he had sparked the debate himself a few weeks ago.

On Easter Sunday, Julia Klöckner also spoke up. In the picture on Sonntag she told Merz that after the election as the new Bundestag president, she congratulated her with the words: “Do something of it.” In her first interview in the new office, the Christian Democrat was so motivated by the churches in Germany. According to Klöckner, they would comment on political issues too often instead of their core issues. This would make you interchangeable non -governmental organizations, said the Catholic and studied theologian. “Of course, the church can also comment on 130 km / h, but I don’t necessarily pay church tax for that,” said Klöckner. “I think this sensible accompaniment is expected from the church, this answer to questions that I have in my everyday life, perhaps also comfort and stability.” The Handelsblatt immediately commented on, Klöckner spoke “a kind of ban on speech” to the churches. There was also an objection from the SPD. Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach wrote on X that political statements by the church are very important. “No muzzle should be recommended.” The member of the Bundestag Ralf Stegner spoke in the “Tagesspiegel” of an “authorized authorization”.

The debate should still swell. Already conjectures from social media, some of the Union may be torpedoing the grand coalition through provocations of the SPD in order to still force a minority government of the Union.

So a lot of work is waiting for Friedrich Merz. But how did the CDU leader say in his video message? “Easter reminds us of it: the light comes after dark days.”