With the crisis-ridden CDU, there seems to be an end, at least formally, to personnel quarrels. A new chairman is expected to be elected in just over two months.
Berlin (dpa) - The CDU plans to elect its new chairman at a special party conference on April 25 in Berlin. The CDU Presidium has agreed on this, as the German press agency learned from party circles.
This must finally be decided by the party executive, who met in the morning. At first it was still unclear whether - as desired by a large part of the party leadership - a fight candidate could be avoided at the special party conference. The team solution hoped for by the party presidency seemed to be on the brink in the morning.
Such a solution without a fight candidate is still a goal, but the chances are uncertain, the dpa learned from the party. Team solution in a kind of top formation means a prior agreement between the candidates to avoid fight candidates.
Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) urges his party to quickly decide on a new leadership. Spahn, who is one of the favorites for the new leadership team, said his impression was that members and voters "have an understandably high need for clarity on the issue." In addition, citizens rightly have the expectation that the largest governing party "will not deal with itself for months now".
As soon as the procedure was clear, all possible candidates would react to it in the next few weeks. With a view to a team solution, Spahn said it was now a matter of holding the party together. The government crisis in Thuringia and the election outcome in Hamburg led to uncertainty among many members.
The CDU leadership also ordered leading CDU politicians from Thuringia to speak on Monday after the disaster in the Mayoral election in Hamburg. In addition to State Secretary Mike Mohring, who is a member of the Party Presidium, Deputy Country Chairman Mario Voigt and Secretary General Raymond Walk also attended the meetings of the top bodies. According to dpa information, Voigt and Walk were specially summoned to the consultations to discuss how to proceed in Thuringia.
The outgoing CDU leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer had met the closest to her in the morning before the presidium meeting with a very close management group, among others from her deputies, for advice at the party headquarters. Among other things, NRW Prime Minister Armin Laschet took part, who is considered a possible candidate alongside ex-Union faction leader Friedrich Merz, Spahn and former Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen. So far, Röttgen has registered his candidacy. Merz and Röttgen do not belong to the CDU top bodies. All favorites traded so far belong to the North Rhine-Westphalian CDU state association.
The deliberations should also deal with the question of how to position oneself in the future vis-à-vis the Left Party and the AfD. The party leadership has so far spoken out clearly against any cooperation with both parties.
CDU Vice Julia Klöckner once again spoke out for a solution to the party's leadership crisis without campaign candidates. "I think a team solution is right. But that will only work if not everyone formulates that he is number one," she said.
Saarland Prime Minister Tobias Hans (CDU) said that of course you can solve the leadership issues in the team. The CDU Presidium is also not a back room. Rather, the party members expected that such questions would be clarified in this body.
Hesse's Prime Minister Volker Bouffier (CDU) expects the management crisis to be resolved quickly. "I am convinced that we will sort things out relatively quickly," he said before the Presidium meeting. When asked whether he believed in a team solution, Bouffier said: "I believe in God. And otherwise we have to see that we get order." He added: "I assume that we will make decisions today."
Bouffier once again clearly refused to cooperate with the Left Party in Thuringia. "It remains that we have nothing to do with the AfD. We don't do anything with them either. But that doesn't automatically mean that we'll do something with the left," he said. The best thing for Thuringia is a quick election.
