Wednesday October 13, 2021
Crisis talk with Markus Lanz
Trittin wishes Union a quick recovery
By Marko Schlichting
He lost the parliamentary elections in Berlin. But the Berlin CDU top candidate Kai Wegner is still not thinking of resigning. Wegner is one of the guests at Markus Lanz, together with the Green Party politician Jürgen Trittin.
While the SPD, Greens and FDP continue to discuss the start of coalition talks, CDU politicians are negotiating the future – their own and that of the party. At the moment the question is whether the grassroots should be involved in the election of a new chairman. Berlin’s CDU boss Kai Wegner thinks that’s right, as he emphasizes in Markus-Lanz on ZDF.
“We have a lot to do”
The CDU is now in a discussion process, says Wegner. It’s not about power right now. The Union lacks any chance to do so. The CDU must fight to soon be a people’s party again, a party without a clientele policy that reflects the different social milieus, according to the politician.
Wegner sees part of the blame for the poor performance of the Union in the Bundestag election with the CSU. “The Union was always strong when the CDU and CSU acted together.” The failures of CSU boss Markus Söder were not helpful. “A number of mistakes were made that resulted in people losing their trust in us.” Wegner thinks how the CSU is acting now. He also respects the fact that Armin Laschet has not yet resigned from his party’s chairmanship. After all, he does not want to run for office again. However, Wegner warns that it is important to also listen to the grassroots.
When asked about his own future, he explains that he is not thinking of resigning either.
“I don’t know who to speak to in the Union”
The lack of leadership in the Union is a problem for Jürgen Trittin from the Greens. He does not believe that the traffic light talks will fail, but if they do, then “I don’t know who to call at the Union now”. CDU boss Armin Laschet wants to moderate the way into the future of the CDU, but that is not enough for Trittin. It is now important that the Union find itself, says Trittin. “Germany needs a conservative people’s party.” The Union is currently very far from this designation. “It is in the interests of all parties that the Union overcomes this crisis quickly,” says Trittin. He trusts the CDU alone to do that, said the Green politician. In the case of the Union “as a whole”, however, he considers that difficult.