CDU "sorts" soon with a new boss: "Definitely" last chance for Merz

Created: 12/16/2021, 11:25 AM

From: Cindy Boden

Friedrich Merz (from left to right), Norbert Röttgen and Helge Braun, the three candidates for the CDU chairmanship, answered questions from party members at a town hall event.

© Michael Kappeler / dpa

The result of the vote for the CDU chairmanship is to be announced shortly.

Does this member survey remain an exception?

Merz positions itself.

Berlin - The CDU does not have a new chairman yet, but it should be ready soon.

Another deadline ends this Thursday (December 16): that of the first voting phase.

Around 400,000 members can vote online or by postal vote until 3 p.m.

The result will then be presented on Friday.

CDU is looking for a new chairman by means of a member survey: "That has high pacification potential"

Will the party get a little more calm then?

“We decided to question the members and the members will make a decision.

That has a high potential for pacification, “said the CDU Federal Vice-President and Hesse’s Prime Minister Volker Bouffier of the dpa.

“In any case, it is good if we have a decision now.

This situation, which has basically preoccupied us for two and a half years, is not good for a party. "

For the successor to CDU leader Armin Laschet, the former head of the chancellery, Helge Braun, ex-parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz and foreign politician Norbert Röttgen stand up.

“The new chairman is now called upon in a number of ways,” Bouffier stated directly.

In the new opposition role in the federal government, the party and parliamentary group would have to "first sort out".

Third candidacy “definitely” the last: Merz wants to be CDU chairman

Sorting will also mean defining clear procedures for the future - for personnel issues, but also for content-related debates.

Merz now spoke out against letting the party base vote on the Union's next candidate for chancellor.

"A membership decision on such personnel issues will probably remain the exception," he told the newspapers of the

.

However, he advocated greater grassroots participation in “factual issues”.

In the event of his election, Merz announced that he would talk to the CSU chairman Markus Söder "about some structural questions". "For the candidacy for chancellor we should find a decision-making mechanism or perhaps an institution from the CDU and CSU in addition to the parliamentary group," he told the newspapers. The parliamentary group represented the constituencies - “what is missing are the two parties”. In any case, the two presidia of the CDU and CSU would have to work more closely together. Basically, according to Merz, the newly elected party leader should also lead the Union parliamentary group. "The fact that the chairmanship of the CDU and the leadership of the Union parliamentary group should be in one hand is a principle that applies," he said.

Merz also made it clear that his third candidacy for the CDU chairmanship was “definitely” the last.

A voter turnout of well over 50 percent in the member vote is "a good sign".

Merz does not expect the decision to be made in the first ballot.

"With three applicants, that's unlikely," he said.

(Traffic light before big tasks - you can find out what the SPD, Greens and FDP are planning in our politics newsletter.)

Video: The three applicants for the CDU chairmanship - Braun, Merz, Röttgen

CDU candidates Braun and Röttgen shoot against Lindner: "Very fundamental break" and "debt tricks"

Meanwhile, Braun commented on a current issue from the Bundestag: the supplementary budget. “This is going to be a very serious debate today because we are very concerned. Because that is a very fundamental break with the budgetary solidity in Germany that we are currently experiencing, ”he said on Thursday morning on

.

Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) wants to reallocate 60 billion euros for investments in climate protection and digitization, which were approved as loans for this year, but are not needed. They should be kept in a climate and transformation fund, so to speak, so that they can still be used in the years to come. The opposition considers the move to be constitutionally questionable because the money was actually approved to fight the corona crisis. The Union parliamentary group therefore wants to have the budget examined by the Federal Constitutional Court.

In this regard, Röttgen also shared on Twitter: “Not a week in office and Lindner starts with the debt tricks.” Lindner breaks his publicly given word.

“Debts that are not needed contradict the spirit of the debt brake and are constitutionally highly questionable.

That destroys trust, ”Röttgen continued.

CDU chairmanship: will someone get an absolute majority on Friday?

If no one gets an absolute majority when the results are announced on Friday, a runoff election will be necessary.

The eventual second voting round would then last from December 28, 2021 to January 12, 2022.

The final decision should be made at a digital party congress on 21./22.

January fall.