Mohring and Kramp-Karrenbauer: Against each other and against the others

She waits for Mike Mohring, as he climbs off the stage in the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus, puts his arm around his waist, speaks a few sentences with the Thuringian CDU top candidate, very familiar and almost friendly looks. Another double cheek kiss, then separate the ways of party leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and Mohring after the joint press conference for the time being.

No one would believe in this moment that Mohring has produced the evening before shock waves in Thuringia, who met in the party headquarters, especially the chairman Kramp-Karrenbauer.

Not because of the bankruptcy of the Thuringian CDU in the state election - but because of Mohring's response and the significant success of Bodo Ramelow and his Left Party. Nevertheless Ramelow has no more majority with SPD and Greens in the parliament. Mohring's reaction was that he would then seek the conversation with him. Kramp-Karrenbauer and her secretary-general Paul Ziemiak immediately heard the alarm bells ringing. Not even half an hour after the polls closed, Ziemiak publicly referred to the federal party's decision to exclude all cooperation with leftists such as AfD.

What Mohring of such teachings holds, he made clear on Monday morning in the ARD "Morgenmagazin": "" I do not need Berlin to know what is important for Thuringia. "The question of how it goes on in Thuringia, said Mohring was "none that will be answered in Berlin".

So hostile is the situation when he arrives Monday morning in the party headquarters for the meetings of the party committees. For the CDU, this is about the basics, dealing with the Left Party and self-assurance as a classic bourgeois force, for the Thuringian party and faction leader for his political future. And, as will be seen in the course of the committee meetings, for the CDU chairperson suddenly too.

After all, it does not take long for the party executive to hear from participants until the head of the Junge Union, Tilman Kuban, takes the floor. After he has formulated strategic-substantive allegations against the party leadership, says Kuban, now the leadership issue should be clarified. Kramp-Karrenbauer reacts, it is reported, promptly and unusually emotionally. She was glad, the chairwoman is quoted as saying that someone finally spoke openly. Then Kramp-Karrenbauer goes over to counterattack. She had been elected party leader last December, the chancellor candidate will be decided in late 2020. Anyone who sees it differently, should come out of the cover, says Kramp-Karrenbauer mutatis mutandis.

State election Thuringia 2019

Preliminary final result

Second vote result

Shares in percent

CDU

21.8

-11.7

The left

31

+2.8

SPD

8.2

-4.2

AFD

23.4

+12.8

green

5.2

-0.5

FDP

5

+2.5

other

5.4

-1.7

allocation of seats

Total: 90

Majority: 46 seats

29

8th

5

5

21

22

The Left (29)

SPD (8)

Green (5)

FDP (5)

CDU (21)

AfD (22)

Source: Provincial Returning Officer

Results in detail

At the subsequent press conference, she says: "Whoever thinks the issue needs to be resolved this fall will have the opportunity at this federal party day." The CDU meets at the end of November in Leipzig, where the Junge Union will apply for a primary candidate for chancellor. The difficult situation of the CDU required "a maximum of responsibility," says Kramp-Karrenbauer. The message to her critics reads: "I accept this responsibility, and anyone else who is part of a CDU governing body has its own responsibility and must decide whether to live up to that responsibility."

It requires a kind of revelatory oath - for example, by Friedrich Merz, who demanded consequences on the election evening consequences in the CDU leadership. But also party party Armin Laschet, the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, which also be said to have ambitions for the Chancellor candidate.

Applause for Kramp-Karrenbauers announcement

In the party executive there is audible and majority applause for Kramp-Karrenbauer, it is said by participants. And then again it's about Thuringia and the Left Party.

Mohring and Kramp-Karrenbauer fight each other the day after the Thuringia election - but they also lead their own battles.

A renewed vote against cooperation with the Left Party, as demanded by participants, does not exist in the federal executive committee. But Mohring must let the current decision situation be held again. However, he also gets backing for his planned talks with Ramelow. According to reports, among others, Schleswig-Holstein's Prime Minister Daniel Günther, who has repeatedly campaigned for more openness towards the Left Party - and Chancellor Angela Merkel.

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The decision, Mohring then says at the press conference, "the first applies to all". Then he talks extensively about his motives for talks with Left-Prime Minister Ramelow. In summary: He is responsible for the country. However, what follows from these discussions and whether this could possibly even be a coalition, he leaves open.

At this point, Mohring has not only Kramp-Karrenbauer and large parts of the federal CDU against him, but also parts of his own national association. The Thuringian CDU is seething: Because of the lousy result - but also the course towards Ramelow. Mohring apparently took that without consulting the party committees.

Sharp criticism of Mohring from the Thuringian CDU

"A coalition with the left would mean the death knell for the Thuringian CDU," says state parliamentarian Christian Herrgott the SPIEGEL. Also Volker Emde, since 1990 in the state parliament of Thuringia, becomes clear. "A coalition with the left is completely out of the question." Quite a number of MPs would not vote for Prime Minister Ramelow, not even he himself. The CDU deputy Jörg Kellner says: "It is completely incomprehensible why twelve hours after the election such a discussion is started." He is certain: "A coalition with the left would tear the CDU apart."

"I now expect an honest work-up in the party," says state veteran Emde. "And also self-criticism, we have made a very disastrous result." That also aims at the head of the district Mohring. Is there an alternative? "There are always personnel alternatives in a people's party like the CDU." Emde says: "We have agreed on the strategy of tipping between Mohring and Ramelow, which has led to people choosing Ramelow." Bringing the blame on Berlin alone, as Mohring does, is wrong.

But Mohring also gets prominent backing. "There was no criticism of the course, both the content orientation and the top candidate were widely supported by the party," says CDU Secretary General Raymond Walk the SPIEGEL. He could understand that such questions are asked for a choice. Nevertheless: "For me, the question of personal consequences does not arise." Also the Thuringian member of the Bundestag and Federal Government Commissioner for the East, Christian Hirte, says: "At the moment I do not see that the personality Mike Mohring is to shake."

This is also the opinion of former Prime Minister Bernhard Vogel. He brought in 1999 an absolute majority for the CDU in Thuringia. "It is not the right time for a discussion about the top candidate," he tells SPIEGEL. "In due course, it must be analyzed exactly where mistakes may have been, including ones of one's own."

Vogel urges prudence. Whether he permeates with it, will show already on Monday evening: Then the national board of the Thuringian CDU meets.