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CDU chief position applicants Armin Laschet (center), Norbert Röttgen, Friedrich Merz (at a digital round of introductions on January 8th)
Photo: Christian Mang / AFP
First of all for clarification: party congresses do not "steam".
They don't "boil".
No "hall battles" are fought there, and the surrounding area no longer corresponds to the content of the political cliché box that is repeatedly emptied to describe party congresses.
By the way, pea soup is no longer very common at party conventions.
Not even with the SPD.
Party congresses, more precisely: Federal party conventions of the CDU, SPD, Greens and other established parties, have now become fairly sterile, well-choreographed major events in air-conditioned exhibition halls.
Nevertheless, they have their own fascination.
Party congresses are condensed politics, condensed into one, two or three days, condensed into a hall in which moods are built up, stimulated or even dispersed by gifted speakers, in which negotiations, work, deals made in the corridors and in behind the scenes the smokers' corner (yes, that's a cliché too, but it's true) alliances are formed.
Party conferences are politics as a concentrate.
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