Armin Laschet, Friedrich Merz and Norbert Röttgen applied for the chairmanship of the CDU.
At the digital party congress, all three candidates had 15 minutes to convince the 1001 delegates with a speech.
Everyone was statesmanlike, emphasizing the unity of the party - and yet want to do everything differently.
The Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet, was the first to speak.
He called for the protection of democracy and the fight against the right.
Laschet recalled the alleged right-wing extremist murder of the Kassel District President Walter Lübcke and the hostility to which many other politicians are exposed.
"We won't let right-wing terrorists and intellectual arsonists destroy our country."
Laschet also appealed to unity in the CDU - which also helps to unite society.
"We have to speak plain language, but not polarize," said Laschet.
New poison should not be spread through own polarizations.
Instead, one has to integrate and bring society back together.
For him, it is also part of negotiating with people who "you may not like".
It is crucial for a center party to always look for compromises, said Laschet.
Overall, the CDU must become more female and younger.
Friedrich Merz was the next to express the same claim in his speech, which largely acted like a defense.
He began his remarks on gender equality policy with an unfortunate saying about "the matter with women."
"I know that we have to get better in women's politics and do more," said Merz.
"But if I really had a problem with women, as some say, then my daughters would have shown me the yellow card long ago - and my wife would not have married me 40 years ago."
Merz described the corona crisis as an opportunity to change things.
Society is in the "state of emergency".
He tries to look ahead and is confident that German companies will survive the crisis.
There will be good economic development.
The aim is to be a modern and sustainable, but also »socially just country«.
In addition, you have to "readjust" in climate policy, says Merz, but without going into detail.
Most clearly of all three candidates, Merz rejected the AfD: "There will be no cooperation with the AfD with me: in any state parliament, in any Bundestag, not in the European Parliament."
At the end of the application speeches of the three candidates for the CDU chairmanship, the former Federal Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen spoke.
He presented himself as a modernizer of the Union and a good alternative to his competitors.
He wanted the CDU to become “the party of future competence,” said Röttgen.
The status quo is not enough, said Röttgen.
The CDU must make an offer for new milieus.
He dares to "win new voters".
He also invokes the unity of the party.
It is »not a camp«, says Röttgen at the virtual party conference of the Christian Democrats.
"Cohesion is also essential for us," says Röttgen and emphasizes: "I want to integrate."
And like the previous speaker, the third man in the race also called for fewer men in the CDU in future: "We have to become more feminine, we have to become younger," says Röttgen.
The CDU could remain a people's party.
After all, that is "more than our interest", it is a "democratic duty".
Icon: The mirror
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