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Still-CDU boss Armin Laschet, potential successors Jens Spahn and Friedrich Merz
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Federico Gambarini / picture alliance / dpa
The debate about reorganizing the CDU is in full swing.
After Armin Laschet indicated that he would withdraw from the chairmanship of the party, leading CDU politicians are in favor of the fact that, as usual, the delegates at a federal party congress should not decide who will be Laschet's successor.
Instead, the party base should elect the next chairman or the next chairman, or at least be more involved in the decision.
A SPIEGEL survey shows: This is also supported by the vast majority of Germans and also by the vast majority of Union supporters.
In the survey by the opinion research institute Civey, 71 percent of Germans are in favor of the new CDU chairman being determined by a primary election for the first time.
Around 18 percent were undecided, only around 11 percent are against the questioning of the members.
You can read the background to the Civey method here.
Remarkable: Even among the Union supporters, more than 70 percent are in favor of a primary election.
The majority of the sympathizers of the other parties who have already had experience with a grassroots democratic chairmanship are also in favor of the Christian Democrats trying this time with a primary election.
CDU leader Laschet wanted to present his plans for a staff and content renewal to the party leadership this Monday after the historic disaster in the federal election.
He announced on Thursday that he wanted to moderate the renewal process and propose a party congress to the bodies to reorganize.
Recently, however, the voices for greater grassroots involvement had become louder.
According to the CDU statute, a member survey is also possible on personnel issues - it is not binding at a final party congress, but is hardly to be ignored.
According to the SPIEGEL survey, young voters up to 29 years of age in particular are in favor of voting by the grassroots: Well over 70 percent agree.
However, there is great support for primary voting across all age groups.
Possible candidates for Laschet's successor as party leader include Health Minister Jens Spahn, foreign expert Norbert Röttgen, economic expert Friedrich Merz and parliamentary group leader Ralph Brinkhaus.
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