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Future CDU leader Merz
Photo: Michael Kappeler / dpa
This time, too, the CDU has to improvise: because of the corona pandemic, the federal party conference will again only take place digitally.
But unlike in January 2021, when at least the opulence of a real party conference was recreated on the grounds of the Berlin trade fair, everything is now one size smaller, it is only switched from the foyer of the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus.
That saves the CDU a lot of money after falling into opposition - but the future chairman Friedrich Merz could certainly have imagined a larger stage for his coronation party conference.
Merz is the focus of the event, which is only scheduled to last seven hours.
But in contrast to the election of the new party leader, the other votes will be more exciting.
The Executive Committee and the Federal Executive Board are completely re-elected.
And then there are also two who say goodbye to the CDU leadership team.
This is what the party congress is about – the overview:
election of the party leader
Nobody doubts that Merz will soon be the tenth chairman of the CDU.
The vote of the party base at the end of last year was too clear, when a good 62 percent voted for him.
Behind Merz, the CDU foreign politician Norbert Röttgen with a good 26 percent and the former head of the Chancellery Helge Braun with around 12 percent came in second and third.
Merz can now run - on the third attempt after his failed candidacies in 2021, when he lost to Armin Laschet, and in 2018, when he lost to Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.
It is quite possible that the 1001 delegates (unopposed) will now elect him as chairman with a significantly better result.
The traditional Merz fans from the conservative wing, but also some of the liberals in the CDU hope that Merz will revive the party.
Because he presented himself in the election campaign - unlike in the past - as a man of the middle, even former critics trust him to bring together the different currents and master the upcoming challenges.
Formally, however, Merz is not yet in office even after the party congress: the digital election of the delegates must be confirmed in writing, and the votes are to be counted on January 31st.
board elections
With the exception of Merz, the entire leadership team of the CDU will be re-elected at the party conference: the presidium as a closer management group, but also the significantly larger federal executive board.
In addition, Merz' candidate for the post of Secretary General is up for election, the member of the Bundestag and former Berlin Senator for Health Mario Czaja.
Merz also wants to have a say in the committee elections: when he ran for the presidency, he joined Czaja and Christina Stumpp, member of the Bundestag, as Deputy Secretary General.
Stumpp cannot yet be elected to this position at the digital party congress because the introduction of the post has to be decided by a regular party congress.
Now Merz can hope for a kind of team according to his wishes, especially in the Presidium: Carsten Linnemann, previously head of the Mittelstandsunion, the prominent climate politician Andreas Jung, Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer, Schleswig-Holstein's Minister of Education Karin Prien and Silvia are candidates for the five deputy posts Breher, who was previously deputy party leader.
However, things are already getting exciting for the other posts in the Presidium, with eight applications for seven places: Merz expressly wanted a candidacy from the youth party of the Junge Union, and Ronja Kemmer, member of the Bundestag, is now standing for the JU. This may threaten the head of the Women's Union, Annette Widmann-Mauz: Like Kemmer, she comes from Baden-Württemberg, and she also achieved the weakest result of the members of the Presidency last time. Or does it even hit an absolute CDU celebrity like Jens Spahn, previously party vice, who is also a candidate for the presidency?
The competition for the 26 places on the rest of the federal executive board is even greater: there are over 40 applications – an astonishing number from the Junge Union.
There are six candidates from the JU alone, including four women.
The future party leader Merz, who generally wants a rejuvenation of the CDU leadership, should also like that.
farewells
Armin Laschet and Paul Ziemiak are both allowed to speak again at the party congress: But what comes along as a “report by the party chairman” and “report by the general secretary” are in fact farewell speeches: Laschet is leaving office after just one year, Ziemiak had his post at least well three years within.
The decisive difference, however, is another: Laschet goes as a complete failure.
This is not the case with Ziemiak.
As a candidate for chancellor, Laschet is responsible for the worst federal election result in history for the Union. After 16 years in government, he led the CDU and CSU into the opposition. Although Laschet is not solely to blame for the disaster, it will stay with him forever. He also had to give up his position as Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia. The 60-year-old is now a simple member of the Bundestag, his political career in the CDU is likely to be over.
Ziemiak, on the other hand, who came into office as Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer's candidate and then remained Secretary General under Laschet, has a more mixed record.
He too is responsible for the election failure, but he also remembers how he held the CDU together for many months during the transition phase from Kramp-Karrenbauer to Laschet.
During his tenure, Ziemiak had to fill gaps that were far too big for him.
And unlike Laschet, Ziemiak's career in the CDU should not be over yet.
At the age of 36 he has already experienced a lot and made many painful but also helpful political experiences.
Therefore, there is some evidence that Ziemiak is only initially classified as a simple member of the Bundestag.
