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The three presidential candidates
Photo: Michael Kappeler / dpa
In the end it suddenly gets loud.
"Now there is still a riot," says presenter Tanja Samrotzki.
But she was just kidding: Friedrich Merz's foot was pounded against the metal frame of his chair when the CDU chairman candidate sat down at the table with Samrotzki and his competitors Armin Laschet and Norbert Röttgen at a separate lectern after the final statement .
Again, it is anything but a speech battle one week before the party conference, at which the CDU will elect a successor to the outgoing chairwoman Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.
Three men in dark blue suits over blue ties at an oval table, each with a glass of water in front of them, who treat each other as civilized as one would wish in a Christian Democratic party.
"The three of you are also doing a great round of Skat," moderator Samrotzki said at the beginning, maybe the hearts of the three CDU politicians would have heated up a little more when playing cards.
But unlike the first part of the so-called Triell three and a half weeks ago, a certain dynamic develops between Laschet and Röttgen on this evening.
Twice in the hour and a half, the North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister taunts his competitor from the Bundestag, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee there, watched with interest by the former Union parliamentary group leader Merz.
First of all, with the first focus on the environment.
From Laschet's point of view, Röttgen answered the question submitted by a CDU member too non-committally when it came to balancing ecology and economy.
When Laschet begins to explain this to him, Röttgen keeps saying: "Yes, of course." But now he can stop, says Laschet, who, as Prime Minister in the land of what was once coal and still steel, is constantly dealing with this question: "There is a conflict there," that one shouldn't talk away.
And a while later, in the meantime the round has reached Internal Security, Laschet instructs his competitor Röttgen because, in his opinion, he is wrong when it comes to the deportation of so-called endangered parties.
Laschet is generally more alert and clear than in mid-December.
But he also has to make up ground.
Started as a clear favorite - NRW Prime Minister, chairman of the CDU state association with the largest number of members and explicit defender of Angela Merkel's successful Mitte course - according to some surveys, Laschet even has to worry about making it into the second ballot on January 16.
This is mainly due to the fact that the initially ridiculed candidate Röttgen has become a serious competitor in the past few months.
This is particularly damaging to Laschet because, unlike Merz, both address the more liberal camp in the CDU.
Ironically, Röttgen, who crashed out as a candidate for Prime Minister in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2021 and gave his party a devastating result, could now spoil the tour for Laschet.
On the other hand, Röttgen has always considered himself a better politician than Laschet - from his point of view the comeback would not be a surprise.
In the candidate trio, Röttgen is the man of departure and opening up of the party, which he also succeeds in this evening.
And certainly the CDU politician means well, in order to address everyone, that he keeps looking at the camera instead of the moderator asking him.
But it still seems a bit rude.
And Merz?
Already in December 2018 he was certain that he would win the race against Kramp-Karrenbauer and Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn and inherit Angela Merkel as CDU leader, at that time he narrowly failed in the runoff election against the now outgoing chairwoman.
And this time, too, the former group leader and his people expect a victory.
The difference to that time: This time Merz worked really hard in advance, phoned the regional associations and diligently advertised itself.
This time everything is different
Everything is different this time: The 1001 delegates will not only meet virtually on January 16, due to the corona - they will also vote digitally on the new chairman.
The candidates will only hold their introductory speeches in the cameras, the delegates will each watch and vote for themselves.
Absolutely uncharted territory for the CDU - but also a party congress, the outcome of which is therefore even more difficult to predict.
In any case, the candidate Merz looks this evening as if he wants to play the game safely home without making major mistakes.
He delivers Merz classics like "I want to play the Champions League and not the district class", in this case coined to the role of Europe in the world, of course, as a man of the economy, he opposes a duty to work from home.
Merz, who currently does not hold any political office except for the vice-presidency of the CDU Economic Council, has used this freedom - while Laschet, who was even more bound by the pandemic as prime minister than ever, started to solicit delegate votes very late.
He is now working hard on the last few meters, most recently the regional associations were able to meet Laschet virtually for 48 hours.
But does that help now?
His partner Spahn, who, unlike in 2018, decided against his own candidacy for the chairmanship and instead promised Laschet support, is anything but help at the moment.
At some point it became clear to Spahn that he would not get out of this team solution while saving his face - according to SPIEGEL information, however, before Christmas he was exploring his chances of becoming a candidate for Union Chancellor in the upcoming federal election campaign among party friends.
Laschet and his people ignore this to the best of their ability, Spahn denies such efforts - the party is nevertheless irritated.
Quite a confusing situation for the CDU
So it is a rather confusing situation for the CDU, a week before their party convention: The Christian Democrats have three candidates for chairmanship, plus another willing candidate for chancellor - and from Bavaria meanwhile, CSU boss Markus Söder, who, according to surveys, is the clear favorite of the Voters for Merkel's successor is.
In other words: even after the party congress, not everything will be decided in the CDU.
But after this evening it will at least become clearer what the candidates are betting on in the final sprint for party leadership: Merz on the well-known clear edge, Röttgen on the subject of modernization and Laschet on his experience as prime minister and the fact that he is the only applicant to have an election won - which, according to his words, "can't hurt either."
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