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CDU politician Sabine Buder: "Of course I'm disappointed"
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Julia Steinigeweg
Women in the CDU, so women in the CDU say, are afraid of being burned by running for a candidate in the party if victory is not certain.
Nevertheless, Sabine Buder dared to raise her hand for an office that she was anything but certain.
Shortly before the end of the nomination period for the CDU party chairmanship, Buder proposed a candidate to her district executive for a change: himself.
Buder was on a mission.
She did not want to leave it that way that her party had once again nominated only men as candidates for the top post.
She wanted to take the election result seriously.
In the party, she hoped, people should play a role who came straight out of life.
After its defeat in the federal elections, the CDU had repeatedly emphasized that it wanted to renew itself, raving about team solutions and double leadership.
CDU politician Jens Spahn even called out to the Junge Union on Germany Day: "If some say that the woman who is running is missing, then I say: Yes, running!"
But in the end there were only three men ready to chair the party.
Women only in a team
These then praised second posts and "team solutions" for female party members.
Norbert Röttgen suggested Franziska Hoppermann as the new CDU general secretary.
At Friedrich Merz, the woman in the team - the Baden-Württemberg local politician Christina Stumpp - was only enough for the post of Deputy Secretary General.
And after all, Helge Braun had already planned a post for, well, Friedrich Merz.
Again, it seemed, women in the CDU should only be an accessory.
Sabine Buder has already seen what that means in recent years. When she decided to apply for the direct mandate in her constituency, she received little support and a lot of sexist comments. "Do you want your ass or your expertise," they said. Or: "The man does not go to the mandate, but the mandate goes to the man."
Buder was a political outsider: Instead of serving up party offices for years, as is customary in the CDU, the politician had set up her own veterinary practice and had four children.
Many saw her as too cheeky and self-confident.
Hardly anyone trusted the 37-year-old vet to get the mandate in the constituency.
After the nomination, things didn't necessarily get better, she reported.
Her predecessor hardly supported her in the election campaign, and she was sometimes ignored at events by other party members.
»Self-enamored first vote election campaign«
In the end, the SPD candidate in Buder's constituency won by 1.4 percentage points.
After all, Buder went home with the best result of the Union candidates in Brandenburg - but without a mandate from the Bundestag.
At a by-election meeting, her party colleagues are said to have accused her of having "self-loving first-vote campaigns" harming the party.
Buder did not let himself get down and then tirelessly campaigned for her party to come to terms with the election defeat.
Buder wanted to know again on Tuesday evening.
For an hour and a half, a small group digitally exchanged information about the vet's candidacy.
Buder does not want to talk about details.
In the end, seven people in attendance voted against Buder, four for her.
There was one abstention.
"Of course I'm disappointed"
In the meantime, Buder should be pretty clear what her district association thinks of her and what her future in politics in Märkisch Oderland looks like in the foreseeable future.
"Of course I'm disappointed," says Buder.
But she was glad that she had tried anyway.
In the end it was an attempt that failed.
Buder's party wasn't ready to try her.
Somehow it stands in the way of its renewal itself.