Two points of contention: CDU leader Merz apparently annoyed with Manfred Weber

Manfred Weber apparently arouses the anger of CDU leader Friedrich Merz twice.

It's about the European elections and his salary.

Munich – Friedrich Merz is upset about Manfred Weber, and twice over.

magazine,

the CDU leader took on his Union colleagues.

Point of contention number 1: Weber brought the Maltese Roberta Metsola into play as the EPP's top candidate for the next European elections.

However, Merz thinks “absolutely nothing” about the idea of ​​​​the President of the European Parliament in this role, and there is “nothing to shake” about the EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen as the top candidate.

Weber knows that too.

Point of contention number 2: This is about Weber's salary.

According to information from the

, he receives around 9,000 euros net per month for his position as EPP chairman, in addition to his income as a member of parliament.

According to participants in a board meeting, Merz expects Weber to clarify the matter "this week".

Weber was probably under the impression that he was getting support from Merz on the question of salary.

Criticism of Weber from his own ranks: "Intransparent and not helpful for the Union"

According to

, Weber tried to disclose his salary, but in an "idiosyncratic form of transparency".

The medium reports on an EPP meeting, from which an audio recording is available.

EPP Treasurer Paolo Rangel says in what appears to be “hard-to-understand English” amid a discussion on heating, electricity and printing costs: “Other costs include the remuneration of the EPP President, which compared to previous EPP Presidents Joseph Daul and Donald Tusk has not changed.” None of the participants interviewed by

could remember the sentence.

Several members of the EPP Presidency stated that Weber's specific salary had never been voted on.

Tusk and Daul would not have permanently received more than 100,000 euros in allowances as MPs.

Weber's remuneration is never mentioned, according to Der

, and neither is who determined it.

In the meeting of the German EPP deputies, several parliamentarians criticized Weber.

Christian Ehler from Brandenburg said the process was "non-transparent and not helpful for the Union".

For Weber, however, the matter is “legally correct”.

According to

, Weber is pretty much alone in the Union without Merz's support, since CSU boss Markus Söder doesn't think much of him either.

It is the next unfortunate event for Weber, who has not been able to collect many plus points in recent months.

He supported the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni from the post-fascist party "Brothers of Italy" and thought Merz would support him here too.

He's been wrong on several occasions.

The SPD continues to lose approval: Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the traffic lights would no longer have a majority if there were federal elections on Sunday.