Commentary on the election of Friedrich Merz: It doesn't matter whether it's from Merkel or Söder - the CDU no longer wants to play games
Created: 01/23/2022, 2:30 p.m
By: Georg Anastasiadis
The election of Friedrich Merz – commented by Georg Anastasiadis.
© Marcus sleep
The CDU party congress has demonstratively strengthened Friedrich Merz.
The ex-Chancellor and her confidante, on the other hand, let the delegates run up.
Without any melancholy, the party bids farewell to the former mother-in-law.
A commentary by Georg Anastasiadis.
At the third attempt and 20 years later, Friedrich Merz still got where he always wanted to be. The fact that the CDU gave him, of all people, the old polarizer, a dream result of almost 95 percent reveals more about the state of mind of the party than about the attraction of the new, milder leaders: After 18 years, the Union wants Merkel to make a breakthrough, she wants it with all her might, even if she doesn't yet know exactly where this path is leading her. And she is ready to give her new leader a leap of faith and put the bitter camp dispute behind her.
There were attempts to reignite the dispute before the party congress, but they were unsuccessful: Merkel's rejection of the CDU honorary chairmanship and a reconciliation dinner with the party leadership acknowledged the delegates with a defiant "now more than ever" result for Merz. The CDU has made its way. She has already forgotten her former supermother. Her confidante Annette Widmann-Mauz felt it. The head of the women's union was the only one who did not make it into the presidency. Just as the ex-Chancellor broke with her party, they broke with her now. It was a sad farewell.
It remains to be seen whether Merz will still achieve his goal in life, the chancellorship, or whether he will remain a chairman of the transition.
He has set himself the task of reconciling the party with itself, and he is clever enough to add new facets to the old image of the economic liberal, especially in social policy.
The same wisdom is also to be wished for the CSU boss Markus Söder when it comes to establishing Merz as the group leader and thus as a strong opposition leader.
Certainly, that curtails Söder's own role.
But this is not the time for new Munich games.
