CDU leader Armin Laschet takes the electoral defeat fully on his hat.
The plain text goes down well with the youngsters of the party.
Health Minister Jens Spahn also made combative tones at the Junge Union's Germany Day.
Münster - CDU boss and Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet has taken sole responsibility for the poor performance of the Union in the federal election. "We achieved a bitter result," he said on Saturday at the Junge Union's Germany Day in Münster. “Nothing can be talked about nicely. I am responsible as chairman and candidate for chancellor, ”said Laschet. “I am responsible for the election campaign and the campaign, and nobody else.” With a view to a likely opposition role in the federal government and several upcoming state elections, he also called for more cohesion.
“We have to stand together again,” demanded Laschet, to whom the delegates paid a lot of respect for his relentless analysis. CSU boss Markus Söder, on the other hand, had canceled at short notice, which many delegates criticized in their speeches. Laschet warned that it should go against the political opponent and "not against each other in the Union family". He had already announced that he would put his political ambitions on hold. The CDU intends to re-elect its entire party executive committee at a special party congress soon. In the federal election, the Union had plummeted to its all-time low of only 24.1 percent.
Laschet made it clear that he assumes an opposition role for the Union in the federal government. In the opposition it is particularly important to “appear together and uniformly” and “wisely and intelligently put your finger in the wound” if a future government makes mistakes, he underlined with a view to a possible traffic light alliance between the SPD, the Greens and the FDP.
Health Minister Jens Spahn admitted: “It was a shitty election result and so is the situation. There is nothing to be said about it. ”The Union will be a constructive opposition and will not always just say“ No ”. At the same time, the party police was also combative: "The CDU is not finished." Spahn called for team spirit instead of "running show". “It's not about Armin, Friedrich, Jens, Ralph or whoever,” he called to great applause in the hall. “The Union is bigger than any of us.” Spahn, the economic expert Friedrich Merz, Union parliamentary group leader Ralph Brinkhaus or the foreign politician Norbert Röttgen are named as candidates for the successor to Laschet.
Laschet rejected the representation of the former Union parliamentary group leader Merz, who had described the Union at the beginning of the JU conference on Friday as a "serious restructuring case at risk of insolvency". Merz had asked his party not to focus on personnel issues, but on the content. “We should only deal with the question of how do we get out of there?” Laschet replied: “I appreciate Friedrich Merz and I also appreciate his analytical strength, but we had a good program, we had positions for which we too continue to stand. "
The eagerly awaited meeting between Laschet and CSU boss Söder did not materialize.
Söder had once been defeated in the internal struggle for the candidacy for chancellor and had repeatedly poked against Laschet.
In “Welt am Sonntag” he now campaigned for a new cooperation between the two sister parties, the CDU and CSU.
"In terms of style and content, we should move closer together again instead of talking publicly about each other," said Söder.
"The CSU will therefore not give any public advice, but - if so desired - help to stabilize the Union."
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"I assume with a high degree of probability that we will go into the opposition and that Olaf Scholz will lead a traffic light coalition," said Körber on Friday on Deutschlandfunk.
The SPD has the first mandate to form a government.
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For the time being, keep a low profile over the exit.
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CSU boss Söder: Germans wanted "other candidates for chancellor"
At a meeting of the Junge Union, Bavaria's Prime Minister tries to explain the failure to vote.
And suddenly he himself gets headwind for his one-man show.
CSU boss Söder: Germans wanted "other candidates for chancellor"
The JU federal board went tough with the mother parties in court.
“Unfortunately, Armin Laschet could not reach people's hearts.
Quite the opposite: many voters did not vote for the Union because of the availability of staff, ”it said in a motion that was due to be voted on on Saturday.
“Such a candidacy is not a one-man show.
Neither in victory nor in defeat. ”Only a few in the federal cabinet were helpful in the election campaign.
Even the leaders of the CDU and CSU “did not look good”.
The analysis reads: “We lost out of our own weakness, not because of the strength of others.” Dpa
