Friedrich Merz is the new CDU leader: What the election means for the leadership positions in the party

Created: 12/18/2021, 8:45 AM

From: Andreas Schmid

The CDU has a new chairman.

Friedrich Merz is to steer the party from now on.

He will also turn the Christian Democrats upside down in terms of personnel.

Berlin - In the third attempt, Friedrich Merz has now made it.

The 66-year-old is the new CDU party leader.

Merz emerged as the clear winner from the member survey on the party leadership.

He will become the de facto successor to Armin Laschet and only needs to be confirmed at the party congress in January.

Due to the change in leadership at the top of the party, the first row in the CDU changes.

CDU: The prestige posts are decreasing

After the poor performance in the Bundestag election and the associated move into the opposition, CDU politicians have become fewer in the first place. In addition to Chancellor Angela Merkel, six CDU ministers left the cabinet. The three CSU ministers Horst Seehofer, Andreas Scheuer and Gerd Müller are also no longer responsible for the government.

With its six Prime Ministers, the CDU is still present at the state level (and also in the Federal Council).

In political Berlin, however, the influence became less.

Less influential means less power.

Basically the only prestigious office that remains is the group chairmanship.

As the strongest of the parties not represented in the government, the CDU / CSU parliamentary group is the leader of the opposition.

The current group leader is Ralph Brinkhaus.

After the federal election, the parliamentary group confirmed him with 85 percent in office.

However, he was not elected for one year as usual, but only until the end of April 2022.

The election took place in the midst of coming to terms with the election debacle and criticism of candidate Laschet for the chancellor.

The shorter term in office was considered a compromise.

The CDU politicians Norbert Röttgen, Jens Spahn and Friedrich Merz were also associated with the office.

However, there was no fight vote.

Will that change with the election of Merz as party leader?

CDU: parliamentary group question currently not an issue - new general secretary and possible change in the board

The fact that the party leader is also the parliamentary group leader would be nothing new. Konrad Adenauer, Helmut Kohl, Wolfgang Schäuble and Angela Merkel held both posts at the same time. When his election was announced, Merz initially left it open as to whether he would also seek to chair the parliamentary group. “The topic is not on the agenda at the moment. And that's why I don't worry about it. ”But he hopes that with his election there will be“ a certain consolidation ”in the CDU's personnel list.

Merz 'de facto election has resulted in personnel changes. Merz will rely on a different Secretary General. The Bundestag member and former Berlin Senator for Social Affairs Mario Czaja is to become General Secretary and thus successor to Paul Ziemiak. When Merz ran for party leadership in January, he still relied on Ziemiak. For the economic politician Merz, Czaja is now supposed to cover the Christian social as well as the employee wing. For the newly created post of Deputy Secretary General, he presented Christina Stumpp, a member of the Bundestag and former Baden-Württemberg local politician. The 34-year-old stands for more femininity and a certain rejuvenation within the party. "I will make sure that we have many young new faces in the leadership of the party," said Merz on Friday.

Team Merz: Mario Czaja and Christina Stumpp.

© Jens Schicke / Imago

Merz also called for the five deputy federal chairmen of the CDU to take on specific tasks in the future and to be identified with topics.

He expressly supported the re-election of Silvia Breher and the candidacy of Schleswig-Holstein's Minister of Education, Karin Prien. 

The current deputy federal chairman of the CDU

• Volker Bouffier

  : Prime Minister of Hesse

• Silvia Breher

  : Chairwoman of the CDU regional association in Oldenburg

• Julia Klöckner

  : former Minister of Agriculture and Chairwoman of the CDU Rhineland-Palatinate

• Jens Spahn

  : former health minister and deputy chairman of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group

• Thomas Strobl

  : Minister of the Interior in Baden-Württemberg and chairman of the CDU regional association there

Merz: election as party leader no preliminary decision for federal election 2025

Incidentally, Merz also expressly said that his election as party leader was not linked to a preliminary decision on the next candidate for chancellor.

That in turn should please the sister party from Bavaria.

CSU boss Markus Söder has already announced several times that he will come to terms with each of the possible chairmen.

The conservative Merz is not unpopular in the CSU ranks anyway.

However, it will by no means be easy for the CSU under a CDU boss Merz.

Incidentally, the CSU is also of the opinion that the election is not associated with a decision about the candidate for chancellor.

Especially since it is by no means clear whether the party leader elected in December 2021 will still be in office just under four years later.

The party leaders Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (2018-2021) and Armin Laschet (2021) could not stay in office permanently.