DAt a digital party conference, the CDU elected the member of the Bundestag Friedrich Merz as the new chairman. Merz received 94.62 percent of the votes. Of the valid 967 votes, 915 went to him. Merz said he was “deeply moved and impressed by this election result”. This is a “strong order and a great mandate”. The party now expects “strong leadership and a clear course,” Merz announced during his round of introductions.
Merz briefly looked back at the past polyphony and the dispute within the CDU and with the CSU and said: The party calls itself “bourgeois, and if that’s right, then we all have to behave like that with each other. What we experienced together in 2021 must not be repeated, it will not be repeated.” Merz proposed Berlin politician Mario Czaja as Secretary General. Mario Czaja received 92.9 percent of the votes in the vote, 875 delegates voted in favor of the member of the Bundestag from Berlin-Marzahn. Christina Stumpp should only be elected Deputy General Secretary later in the year.
Merz said in his speech: “We have not lost our self-confidence or our civic responsibility for our country. As the “opposition of today”, the Union will claim to be the government of tomorrow again. “It can be a long way until then.” Merz continues: “If we argue, if we diverge in all directions, if we are not up to date on the issues, it may take a very long time.”
Powerful opposition
If the CDU quickly takes hold, “then defeat can also be a new beginning, a new opportunity for us”. He was ready and “determined to seize this opportunity”. Firstly, you have to be a powerful opposition in the federal government, secondly, win elections in the federal states and thirdly, give new answers, write a new basic program.”
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The new party leader, born in Brilon in the Sauerland in 1955, prevailed at the third attempt after his two main competitors Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and Armin Laschet had to give up the party leadership after a few months. After an initial career in politics, the lawyer Merz worked between 1989 and 2009 as a member of the European Parliament and the Bundestag, then successfully in the private sector, as a lawyer and for the asset manager Blackrock, among others.
Since the end of 2018 he has applied for the office of party chairman, most recently against competitors Norbert Röttgen and Helge Braun. In a member survey in December, Merz won 62.1 percent of the votes cast. The party congress now confirmed this result. The vote was a so-called “digital pre-vote”, which now requires written confirmation from the delegates by the end of January. Only then is Merz officially in office.