CDU boss Armin Laschet is about to withdraw: Ex-parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz speaks in an interview about the change in the Union and a conservative course.
Munich - days of reckoning in the CDU: After the historically poor election result, party leader Armin Laschet is ready to initiate personal consequences.
Friedrich Merz, at times rival in the race for party leadership, at times supporter in the election campaign, is considered to be one of the possible successors.
He speaks to the Union's conscience: Take care of the content!
In an interview, the 65-year-old Sauerlander said that he himself no longer knew what the CDU stood for.
The Union is slipping into a historic crisis, the traffic lights are coming together.
Why don't you say: we lost the election and are now renewing ourselves in the opposition?
We lost the choice.
Period.
But that doesn't necessarily mean that we have to go into the opposition.
The CDU and CSU have always been aware of their state political responsibility.
If the Union was needed for a government, it would have to be ready.
But they hear: I am speaking in the subjunctive.
The signs point to opposition.
Do you, the conservative, take a load off your heart - thank God, don't have to rule with the Greens?
No, it might even have been an interesting project.
But of course there are also issues where we would have to draw red lines in negotiations.
We couldn't do without all content for the sake of government.
Massive new debts, a technology-hostile climate policy or opening the country further to unregulated immigration - something like that shouldn't happen with the Union.
Laschet clears the way.
Do you cry after him with crocodile tears?
I have known and valued Armin Laschet for decades.
The fact that he paves the way for the CDU's new beginning deserves respect, thanks and great recognition.
And let me also say: The amount of malice and agitation that hit him during the election campaign shocked me.
We need a new culture of decent dealings with one another.
Laschet wants to moderate his succession himself.
Is it impossible that Laschet will remain CDU boss in the end?
We will now work together to find the way for a realignment with the participation of our 400,000 members.
Armin Laschet will moderate this process, and in the end there will be not only a new party chairman, but also a largely new leadership team of the CDU.
Do you want to become party leader - and how?
I have not yet decided whether I will compete again.
But I rule out one thing: I will not go into a controversial vote at a federal party congress again.
Above all, we should now talk about the question of whether we can find a solution by consensus and how we can involve the party base more closely.
CDU politician Friedrich Merz: "We are now experiencing a deep turning point"
The Chancellor only supported Laschet in the very last few days of the election campaign.
Is it your account of the defeat?
At least it is not a grand finale to her 16-year chancellorship.
We should learn from this that handovers must be prepared earlier and better in the future.
This applies equally to offices in government and in the party.
The way we did it this time, it was clearly unsuccessful.
And Markus Söder?
His taunts did not exactly strengthen Laschet.
Over 60 percent perceived the Union as divided in polls in the election year.
If we had acted as one, we could at least have become the strongest group.
But again: subjunctive.
Many in the Union are now calling for a renewal in terms of content and personnel.
What do you recommend?
First of all, I recommend: keep your nerve and don't rush.
We are now experiencing a deep turning point.
We need a certain period of reflection, then a new structure in terms of content and personnel.
If we want to remain a people's party of the center, we have to do a lot more than just formulate an abstract government claim.
We have to tell people why we want this.
The Union has not given these answers for years.
Merkel has opened the Union to new groups of voters with her modernization course.
Why did it go so terribly wrong in the end?
That already went wrong for the 2017 Bundestag election. We should see both elections in context, the second worst result in 2017 and now the worst in post-war history.
The Union must now do something that it has not done since 2005: analyze carefully what happened there and then draw conclusions from it.
Something has started to slide with all groups of voters.
We don't reach the young, the women too little, and now we can't reach the older either.
That poses the existential question for the CDU.
Friedrich Merz: "We forbid too much in this country"
So does the Union need a clearer profile again?
I've been a member of the CDU for almost 50 years.
And today I could no longer tell you what the umbrella term is that holds our party together and what it actually stands for in terms of content.
We have to redefine an enlightened and modern, bourgeois policy that clearly positions us in the party spectrum.
More specifically, please.
For example, it is about sustainability in the broadest sense.
Bourgeois-conservative means in this context: Preserve things worth preserving, do not fall over in every storm.
And that includes not only climate change, but also sustainable public finances, viable old-age provision, consistent migration policy and a new generation contract.
Should the Union reopen itself to modern nuclear energy?
We are banning too much in this country and we are getting out of too many technologies.
I see it like Armin Laschet: The order of first phasing out nuclear energy and then phasing out coal was wrong.
These decisions are made now, but we should learn from them for the future and no longer exclude technologies in the first place.
Two hot topics: Where do you define the conservative line in the speed limit - and in drug policy?
All studies show that a general speed limit would be nothing but symbolic politics - the CO2 savings are marginal and the main accidents are on country roads and in the city centers, not on motorway sections without a speed limit.
And in drug policy, the main task of the state is to protect its citizens.
If the CDU has to go into opposition, does the CDU need dual leadership, or do parliamentary group and party chairmanship again belong in one hand?
Based on the experience of the last 20 years, I can only advise you to avoid double peaks.
That was wrong in the 2000s, and it has proven to be a disadvantage over the past three years as well.
The coexistence of the Chancellery and the party chairmanship has caused massive damage to the Union.
The party chairmanship and the chancellery or the opposition leadership in parliament belong in one hand.
If the traffic light still bursts - could Söder suddenly jump out of the box as Jamaica Chancellor?
That is a purely theoretical and very abstract view.
The CDU does not lack candidates for the party chairmanship, but it does lack ideas for what the party wants to stand for in the future.
A comment by Georg Anastasiadis.
Interview: G. Anastasiadis, M. Schier, C. Deutschländer
