Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer went on the offensive at the CDU party congress in Leipzig. In her eagerly awaited keynote speech she criticized a bad talk of the government's work under Chancellor Merkel. "There are and there were 14 good years for Germany, and we can all be proud of each other."
Your opponent in the election to the party presidency a year ago, ex-Bundestag faction leader Friedrich Merz, had called the work of the Federal Government after the poor result of the CDU in the state election in Thuringia as "grottenschlecht". Merz will talk to Kramp-Karrenbauer at the congress.
To say bad things is "not a successful campaign strategy, we should not get used to it." Kramp-Karrenbauer says of the accumulated personnel speculation: "We hold such discussions, we do not inscribe ourselves into ruin."
The CDU leader, under pressure for weak poll numbers, called for more composure. It was before the congress of "revolution" and "turmoil" the speech. A look back shows that this is almost always the case before party conferences. She acknowledged that it was a difficult year. And yet, some things are now relativizing where the party convention began.
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Merkel had previously received a great deal of applause at her greeting. The approximately 1,000 delegates stood up and clapped for about two minutes. The Chancellor looked almost embarrassed, beaming, and finally made a sign to stop the applause. Merkel resigned from the party presidency last year after 18 years, after the CDU lost several state elections. Then Kramp-Karrenbauer was elected to the party congress in Hamburg in December 2018 to the new chairman.
"Wealth for all remains our goal," said Kramp-Karrenbauer. It was to be achieved with and not despite digitization. She therefore called for a digital ministry for Germany: "We can not avoid a digital ministry."
Nor is it enough to submit a third bureaucracy reduction bill, which requires automatic data reconciliation between administrations. Also very important is the development of quantum technology. Even as Secretary of Defense, she must warn that all present defense systems in the quantum age no longer played a role, "because then they are technologically cracked." "I do not want to make my security dependent on other states in the world."
The industrial core in Germany must be maintained, especially the automotive industry. Although she is pleased that the US group Tesla now build a plant in Germany, Kramp-Karrenbauer said. However, it is more important to her that the internal combustion engine with synthetic fuels will be preserved in Germany and that these would be built in Munich, Stuttgart and Wolfsburg.