On the way to the lectern, Friedrich Merz has to pass Angela Merkel. It's a long journey, and when Merz sets out from the right corner of the Leipzig Messesaal, the Chancellor reads on her mobile.
Does she look at him, does she not look at him? That is the question. Merz has been Merkel's affliction for almost twenty years, three weeks ago he called her government "wicked". Merkel has put a "foggy carpet" over the country. Merz walks, Merkel reads.
So far, she has not noticed much of this congress, at least not with full attention. Mostly she read or wrote. After all, she no longer needs to listen to every speaker since she virtually lives in semi-retirement. Half of her duties, the CDU chairmanship, she gave up at the last party convention a year ago. Now she is a simple delegate with the main job Federal Chancellor. It's her first party convention in twenty years, in which she is not for a minute chairman.
In the video: Analysis of the party congress of SPIEGEL editor Markus Feldenkirchen
REUTERS / THE MIRROR
She sits on the right side of the podium between Ralph Brinkhaus, chairman of the CDU parliamentary group, and Ursula von der Leyen, the designated president of the European Commission. The congress starts, Merkel begins her reading.
It's pretty intense until her successor, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, greets the German Chancellor. "Dear Angela, welcome". A few warm words, a nice but not powerful applause, the delegates stand up a bit hesitantly. Merkel laughs, shakes her head, apparently not completely unmoved.
"You are the toughest negotiator"
Their heavy minutes are yet to come, before Merz's speech. The party congress is in the difficult situation that on the one hand it wants to set a signal of the departure, which can not be connected with Merkel however. Because the Chancellor will govern for a maximum of two years, as she herself has announced. One has to change the switch, and that's what Kramp-Karrenbauer does when she says coolly in her speech: "It's no longer enough to be a repair shop."
Merkel does not look at her cell phone, looks blankly at Kramp-Karrenbauer. Only repair shop? The boss of this workshop is Merkel. The CDU must shape the future again, continues Kramp-Karrenbauer. Behavioral clapping of the woman who will no longer be part of this future.
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CDU party congress: Kramp-Karrenbauer trumps up - for the time beingEven thicker it comes when Minister of Health Jens Spahn talks. He says that the CDU now has to learn to walk again and thus uses the formula that Merkel once used to break the party of Helmut Kohl. It is time for a departure, says Spahn, and he even claims for the woman, which has expelled the party friends apparently running: the Chancellor, because they certainly see it that way. If one could increase "expressionlessly", one would have to say: Merkel looks even more expressionless in this moment. She probably does not think so at all.
On the other hand, she got herself into it with her two-step retreat, plunging her party and country into a strange split. In other words, you are now on track 9 3/4, which is actually only available at Harry Potter.
However, Merkel also experiences beautiful moments in her congress waggon. Ursula von der Leyen praises her for her behavior in the debate over a quota of women in various camps. "You are the toughest negotiator I have ever met in my life," exclaims von der Leyen. But Merkel always makes sure that her counterpart does not lose face. Von der Leyen speaks of "human size" with the Chancellor. There she looks, maybe even touched, but that's not exactly the case with Merkel.
Merkel knows when she has to send a signal
Your own speech is entitled "Greetings," that's the way it is now. The Chancellor greets the party congress of the CDU, but who had hoped she would talk less wooden under the homely title than usual, was disappointed. Merkel enumerated what her government had done, skilled labor immigration law, "a giant offensive in the housing sector" and so on. A greeting in the dash format - there is not so often. When her successor talks afterwards, it becomes clear: Kramp-Karrenbauer is clearly better at that, as a speaker she moves in a different league than Merkel.
As a mobile phone user Merkel prefers an angle of 45 degrees. So she keeps her cell phone, types and reads, mostly her head is deeply inclined during this congress. Sometimes she shows this spontaneous face of attention to show that she has heard everything. So people who emerge from the pool or an ocean look: I was in another world, but now I'm back. And also clap along very doll.
In the video: excerpts from the speeches of Friedrich Merz and Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer
Clemens Bilan / EPA-EFE / REX; Odd Andersen / AFP
You would like to know if she really knows what she is applauding every time. By the way, she can also clap and read at the same time. She's probably running her mobile right now. It has to be governed permanently, and that is more important than a speech by Deputy Party Chairman Volker Bouffier.
But Merkel also knows when to send a signal. The chairman of the Junge Union, Tilman Kuban, expects the sharpest attack on Kramp-Karrenbauer at this congress. As he talks, Merkel sits next to the party chairman. With that, all has been said. Kuban's attack has no effect, but this has less to do with Merkel than with the conciliatory atmosphere of this congress.
Merz is approaching, has almost reached it, and now the Federal Chancellor looks up. Do not you want to tell anyone, they avoid the eye contact with their visitation. She does not look, Merz. With which he has clearly lost this little duel.
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