At the end it is a déjà vu: Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer stands in the middle of the big congress stage, tears in the eyes, the delegates applaud standing, for minutes.
That's what happened last December in Hamburg, Kramp-Karrenbauer had just prevailed in the run-off election for the CDU chairmanship against Friedrich Merz. And so it is on this early Friday afternoon in the Leipzig Exhibition Hall 2. The chair, not even a year in office, has asked the delegates the vote of confidence - and in the hall, most jumped immediately. The standing ovations last seven minutes.
If they are not prepared to go along with their course, then they should decide this at the congress, Kramp-Karrenbauer has previously called the party friends. "Let's say it today, let's end it today, here and now and today." One and a half hours, the chairman has already talked, completely unexpected comes this announcement.
The answer is clearer. "The applause shows: Today is not put an end," says Saxony's head of government Michael Kretschmer, who is in charge of the presidency at this moment, after the hall has calmed down again. "Today it really starts."
Kramp-Karrenbauer is allowed to feel that the party is behind her after the reaction of the delegates. That the CDU despite all the disputes and all failures, which are also due to mistakes of the boss to continue with her. For now. For whether Kramp-Karrenbauer is and can be the strong figure her party needs now is still open. Especially the question of Chancellor candidate.
Merz is loyal - and countered nevertheless
This becomes clear at the latest when Friedrich Merz comes to the podium in the debate on the chairman's speech. Unlike in Hamburg - at that time Merz disappointed with a rambling and unfocused speech - he keeps in Leipzig short. Merz demonstratively supports Kramp-Karrenbauer, praising her speech. But everyone in the room realizes that there is one who still wants something.
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CDU party congress: Kramp-Karrenbauer trumps up - for the time beingIn fact, nothing has been clarified for the CDU on this Friday afternoon in Leipzig: Kramp-Karrenbauer continues to act as re-elected chairman, Merz as the first contender for the Chancellor candidate of the Union parties.
And the profile of the two has only become sharper. On the one hand there is the political expert on the party leadership. Kramp-Karrenbauer was responsible for almost every department in the Saarland and was Prime Minister for many years, before she first changed to federal politics as CDU general secretary, now she is defense minister. This reflects her speech, she works about every subject in it.
On the other side there is the projectionist Merz. The former Union faction leader stands for simple answers and clear announcements. For the good old CDU. What Merz exactly and what he wants to do differently, one does not know even after this speech.
Kramp-Karrenbauers speech - rarely rousing
Kramp-Karrenbauer's speech is a plea for the value of compromise in politics. Measure and center - these are their guardrails. "This has nothing to do with sissies," says the chairman. But because she speaks so long and in detail, it often has little contentual tension. That is their understanding of programmatic work that should be at the heart of this congress. "We do not let ourselves be ruined," says Kramp-Karrenbauer; instead, the CDU must provide answers to concrete problems. In climate policy, the party has already closed a large gap, she believes, in other areas, it must follow suit.
Fierce and rousing that is rare, but Kramp-Karren Bauer's final is all the more dramatic. A presidential election was not at the party congress - now she may feel confirmed by this unusual way. Without vote.
Merz announced before this party congress that he would not seek the showdown in Leipzig. The presidency interests him only instrumentally anyway, even the candidacy in Hamburg aimed at the Chancellery. Accordingly tame, he now appears at the lectern. Nevertheless, Merz always reaps loud applause. For example, with sentences like: "Fear or freedom is the question we are facing." Green doomsday scenarios must oppose the CDU optimism, he demands.
The Leipzig Party Congress must send out the message that the Christian Democrats wanted to assume their responsibility for Germany in the next few years as in previous decades, says Merz. "I want to fight with you for that."
The question of power still needs to be clarified
However, Merz has to ask himself whether he has lived up to this claim so far. Many in the CDU were disappointed that after his defeat in Hamburg, Merz himself stood aside and was not available to the governing bodies. Vice President of the CDU Economic Council - that is a little bit for one who wants so much. And in recent weeks, supporters even wondered about his constant taunts against the federal government and the party leadership.
Now he speaks at the lectern about loyalty as a value of the CDU. It is not about him "or even any lower motives that are alleged to me".
For Merz, it could be quite a challenge in the coming months to permanently eliminate this suspicion. Kramp-Karrenbauer knows that she will not get rid of him so soon. "No, not this party congress will bring the final decisions," emphasizes Merz. "We are at the beginning of this process and certainly not at the end."
The statement by Prime Minister Kretschmer is correct in every case: Now it really starts.
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