The Merz people are pushing forward: the party and parliamentary group leader is to become a candidate for chancellor.
The opportunity is favorable.
A commentary by Georg Anastasiadis.
This time, Friedrich Merz no longer wants to have the butter taken off his bread.
Markus Söder out, Hendrik Wüst here: The CDU leader is determined to assert his claim to the chancellor candidacy in 2025, and to do so early on, before possible rivals mature - for example Söder, for whom he is currently not even winning the absolute majority in the Bavarian election seems completely impossible in autumn.
Merz confidants go on the offensive – CDU boss wants to know about the K question
The fact that Carsten Linnemann, the head of the Policy Commission, and parliamentary group leader Thorsten Frei, two of Merz's closest followers are now going on the offensive and proclaiming him the natural candidate, is no more coincidental than the news that the CDU (to the astonishment of the sister CSU ) wants to raise the top tax rate.
Merz wants to shed his image as a socially chilled ex-Blackrock manager.
The opportunity is good: the Union is stable and is far ahead of the traffic light parties in the polls.
Merz has also caught up significantly in terms of Chancellor preference and overtaken Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
And for the potential rival and NRW Prime Minister Wüst, the K question comes a little too early.
CDU leader Merz wants to step out of Merkel's shadow
Even more exciting than the question of who the Union believes should be the next chancellor is the question of who the Union could govern with in the event of a victory.
Black-Green, which was previously considered the wishful alliance of the 67-year-old CDU leader who is striving for a more modern image, could miss the necessary majority if the Greens continue to turn out to be a terror for the public.
With a Jamaica four-party coalition of CDU, CSU, Greens and FDP, the Union would bring the same hassles into the house that are already paralyzing the traffic lights.
So it's quite possible that in the end - as is now the case in the city of Berlin - it will also end in a coalition of the mainstream parties Union and SPD.
It could have a reconciling effect after a period of rubbing against each other at traffic lights.
Merz would finally step out of the shadow of his intimate opponent Angela Merkel – even if he ended up having to continue her black and red legacy.
A commentary by Georg Anastasiadis.
