As of: February 7, 2024, 12:09 p.m
By: Stefan Krieger
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Despite harsh criticism, the CDU leader does not rule out a coalition with the Greens.
A statement that causes quite a stir within our own ranks.
Berlin – CDU boss Friedrich Merz likes to offend.
With the traffic light coalition anyway, but now also with members of their own party - and with the CSU.
After Merz's statements about the possibility of a black-green coalition at the federal level, negative voices from his own camp were heard.
“Black-green is not a model for the future,” said CSU general secretary Martin Huber to the
editorial network Germany (RND)
.
The chairman of the Junge Union, Johannes Winkel, told the
ZDFHeute
portal that 18 months before the federal election was not the time for coalition speculation.
“But what you can already say is that the black-green coalition at the federal level is beyond the political imagination.”
Merz also keeps alliances open with the FDP and SPD
Merz wrote an email to supporters at the weekend about future coalition options for the Union, which is currently by far the strongest force in surveys.
He had kept open alliances with all three parties in the current traffic light coalition.
He named the SPD and the Greens as possible partners in the event that a coalition with the FDP was not enough.
“Not a particularly tempting prospect, but there must be a majority capable of governing,” he wrote in his newsletter.
Friedrich Merz believes that there should not be no alternative to a coalition.
© Imago Images/Political Moments
Merz also argued with the example of Hesse, where Prime Minister Boris Rhein, as the election winner, conducted explorations with the SPD and the Greens and then decided on the Social Democrats as a coalition partner.
“If the Hessian CDU had ruled out a coalition with the Greens from the outset, as many members and voters demanded, this exploration of the best success in the interest of the CDU would not have been possible, the SPD would have appeared much more self-confident,” says Merz .
There should also be no alternative to a coalition.
Merz's plans are met with incomprehension
JU boss Winkel now argued: “The green zeitgeist of the 10s, which unfortunately also affected the Union, is the cause of many of the fundamental problems in Germany.” Therefore, the signal must be very clear: “Black-green is not a model for the future. “
CSU politician Huber renewed the fundamental criticism of the Greens, which recently determined the tone of the CDU and CSU towards the party.
“With their policy of ideological paternalism, the Greens are primarily responsible for the bad mood in the country,” he said.
In contrast, he argued that the CSU stood for a “politics of the reality of life”.
“The CSU and the Greens simply don’t fit together.”
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In his newsletter, however, Merz also made it clear that he is aiming for a “policy change” compared to the current traffic light government of the SPD, Greens and FDP in the next federal election.
“In foreign and security policy as well as in energy and climate policy, in economic policy as well as in labor market and social policy,” he wrote.
The Bundestag will be re-elected regularly in 2025.
Green politician: Merz understood
The Hessian Green Party politician Tarek Al-Wazir, who ruled with his party as a junior partner with the CDU until the recent change of government in Wiesbaden, sees Merz's recent statements as a change of course.
He welcomed the fact that he had obviously understood “that this fundamentalist course of the Union is not sustainable,” he told
ZDFHeute
.
Democrats must be able to talk to each other and compromise and, if in doubt, also be able to form a coalition.
“This is especially true in times when democracy is threatened by extremists.
It was absolutely inappropriate that Friedrich Merz declared the Greens to be the main enemy.”
Support from Baden-Württemberg
The most recent support for a black-green coalition at the federal level comes from Baden-Württemberg, where a coalition of the Greens and the CDU has been in power since 2016.
Winfried Kretschmann, the state's Green Prime Minister, assessed the possibilities of such a partnership in Berlin after the 2025 federal election as “very great”.
Kretschmann underlined his thesis with the statement that “we need this connection between ecology and economy”.
Thomas Strobl, the state's interior minister and member of the CDU, said that based on the positive experiences in Baden-Württemberg, he would not advise Merz to categorically rule out working with the Greens.
He backed up his statement with “The opposite is true.”
Last year, Merz identified the Greens as his main rival within the federal government.
This statement sparked a controversial debate, especially given that there are already black-green government alliances in several federal states.
(skr/dpa)