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Chancellor candidate Laschet during the election campaign in Osnabrück
Photo: Friso Gentsch / dpa
The displeasure in the CDU about the state of the party and the lack of popularity of Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet are increasingly reflected in internal chats, according to SPIEGEL.
In a WhatsApp group called "Team CDU" made up of employees from party headquarters, members of the Bundestag and local members, an election campaigner complained about the situation this week.
The main problem is now to make the candidate for chancellor "palatable".
"We didn't know where to hang the Laschet posters so that we would do the least damage," he wrote.
"In the end, you hang them up where, when in doubt, few people choose us anyway."
Laschet is the main topic at election campaign stands.
Several group members responded with "full approval" and a "thumbs up" emoticon.
Another Christian Democrat wrote after a Twitter offensive by General Secretary Paul Ziemiak: »Is Paul our candidate for Chancellor now, or Armin Laschet?
You can't keep up with that on the net if you look at our communication. "
One group member described the current communication strategy as "campaigning from hell".
The group, which describes itself as “party soldiers”, has reportedly around 200 members.
In many other WhatsApp groups, too, fear of losing the election is said to put a strain on the climate.
The Konrad-Adenauer-Haus did not want to comment on the internal chats.
There was also resentment at a virtual meeting of the Union faction.
As the "Bild" newspaper first reported and as SPIEGEL confirmed from parliamentary groups, the Düsseldorf CDU MP Sylvia Pantel has reportedly asked the candidate for chancellor to take responsibility as chairman, if in the next 14 days there is no improvement in the survey results.
"Consequences" would then have to be drawn.
It is better "to react briefly and painfully than to go under together," Pantel is quoted as saying.
According to the participants, she did not say what exactly she meant by "consequences".
Pantel is said to have met with both approval and rejection with their request.
There was also criticism in the parliamentary group chat running parallel to the meeting.
Veronika Bellmann, Saxon CDU MP, asked: "Where are the top staff in Armin Laschet's shadow cabinet as unity and a clear demonstration that we want to govern?"
The MP Axel Müller is said to have gone into court tough with the party headquarters: “The Adenauerhaus sometimes seems like the Reich Chancellery in April / May 1945, you work with divisions that no longer exist and send pensioners and the JU to them Street."
The Union parties have recently slipped in polls.
In the new ARD Germany trend, it comes to 23 percent, a lead of only two points over the Social Democrats.
This Saturday the Union wants to officially start the election campaign in Berlin.
Appearances are planned by Chancellor candidate Laschet, CSU boss Markus Söder and Chancellor Angela Merkel.
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