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Söder, Laschet: The deadline expires this Sunday
Photo: Michael Kappeler / picture alliance / dpa
These are exciting days for political Berlin: on Monday the Green Party executive wants to announce whether it will send Annalena Baerbock or Robert Habeck into the race for chancellorship.
And by today, Sunday, the competitors themselves announced that CDU boss Armin Laschet and CSU boss Markus Söder also want to agree on which of them will run as the Union's top candidate.
It could be a long Sunday evening.
Even a recent quote from Annalena Baerbock makes it clear what differentiates the choice of candidates in both parties.
Unlike others, the Greens adhere to the agreed procedure, said Baerbock: “What applies before also applies afterwards.
And that's why we will announce all these decisions on Monday. "
While the Greens exude such discipline, the Union seems on the verge of tearing itself apart.
The bitter dispute over whether Laschet or Söder would be the better candidate has left the CDU and CSU circling for days.
And even on Sunday morning, after supposedly “good” or “constructive” talks between the rivals, it is unclear what Laschet and Söder will do when their deadline expires: will they announce a final decision?
Or do they postpone their power struggle and let representatives of both parties vote?
"Otherwise there is a risk of trenches being opened"
The latter demanded on Saturday, for example, CDU board member Christian Baldauf, who spoke out in favor of including the district chairman in the decision.
If the chancellor question is not resolved immediately, a digital nationwide conference of district chairpersons will be needed at short notice, Baldauf told SPIEGEL.
It is important to collect a broad opinion in the area "and to hear the message of the grassroots".
Carsten Linnemann, the deputy chairman of the Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag, warned of a different scenario for resolving the conflict.
"What we need now is a joint solution and not a fight vote in the parliamentary group," said Linnemann, who supports Armin Laschet.
"Otherwise there is a risk of opening up trenches that will be difficult to fill again."
Friedrich Merz had also described a vote in the parliamentary group as "the worst of all possible options."
"Agree," Merz appealed to Laschet and Söder.
Plans for a "German Council of the Union"
The deputy head of the CDU social wing, Christian Bäumler, brought an arbitration into the discussion, as possible mediators he named Wolfgang Schäuble, Volker Bouffier, Edmund Stoiber and Theo Waigel for the Handelsblatt.
For future decisions on candidates for chancellor, Bäumler called for a new body, a "common, democratically legitimized decision-making body that reflects the strengths of both parties."
Bäumler envisions a "German Council of the Union".
Representatives of both parties elected by the respective party congresses should nominate the candidate for chancellor and decide on the program.
"The CDU / CSU parliamentary group is not this organ because too many individual interests let off steam there," says Bäumler.
How tense the situation in the Union is, how many scenarios are mentally played out, are also shown by other speakers.
Dennis Radtke, for example, a CDU politician from North Rhine-Westphalia, was verbally prepared for an escalation level of the dispute that currently seems far away.
Founding the CDU in Bavaria should “no longer be a taboo,” Radtke told ZDF - at least not “if Söder wants to force the candidacy for chancellor, if he wants to destroy the CDU”.
For decades it has actually been true that the CDU and CSU do not want to compete with one another.
The CSU therefore does not take part in elections outside of Bavaria, the CDU is not active in Bavaria.
Parts of the CDU also favor Söder
Karin Prien, Schleswig-Holstein's Minister of Education, is one of the CDU politicians who are now portraying Söder as a threat to party peace.
She, who is also a member of the federal executive committee of the CDU, wrote on Twitter that "the disrespectful, inconsiderate actions of the CSU and Markus Söder" will "not remain without consequences."
The former CDU leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer accused Söder of a lack of respect for the big sister party and its bodies.
But not only in the CSU, but also in the CDU, there are supporters of Söders who see in him and especially his survey results the best chance for the Union to do well in the federal elections.
The CDU state chairman of Thuringia, Christian Hirte, spoke out indirectly in favor of Söder.
Laschet and Söder were commissioned by the party bodies and the parliamentary group to bring about an agreement, said Hirte.
"The wish of the majority of voters and the CDU is obvious."
The chairman of the senior citizens' union of the CDU, Otto Wulff, holds against CDU boss Laschet.
"I do not believe in making politics on the basis of daily opinions or choosing the candidate for chancellor after the surveys," said Wulff.
Is Söder speculating on a vote by the parliamentary group?
The top bodies of the CDU and CSU each stood behind their party leaders at the beginning of last week.
On Tuesday Laschet and Söder appeared in the Bundestag faction, where there were dozens of requests to speak - more in favor of Söder than for Laschet, according to participants.
Both then promised an understanding by the end of the week.
In CDU circles it was suspected on Saturday that Söder could actually speculate on a decision in the Union parliamentary group next Tuesday.
A list of signatures is allegedly already being prepared among his supporters, with which MPs want to force a vote if an agreement is not reached at the weekend.
Both Laschet and other CDU top politicians had already refused the faction to make the decision. On the one hand, a number of members of the Bundestag are leaving the Bundestag. On the other hand, Armin Laschet pointed out that there were many candidates for the Bundestag who did not even belong to the current parliamentary group.
For the political competition, the power struggle in the Union is a welcome template, which not only Annalena Baerbock took up at the weekend.
SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich also accused the Union of neglecting corona policy during the debate about the candidate for chancellor.
He said of “Bild am Sonntag”: “It is really shocking what our coalition partner is up to.
Day after day, the CDU and CSU frivolously mess around with their internal dispute over power and vanity instead of worrying about the important things. "
mbö / dpa / Reuters
