Sunday 17th October 2021
Debate about member survey
JU boss criticizes Brinkhaus statement on the open stage
The parliamentary group leader is a guest on the last day of the meeting of the youth of the CDU and CSU. He, too, calls for a new way of working together in the party. At the end there is a short dispute with the delegates. Brinkhaus should not have collected points for any own ambitions.
Union parliamentary group leader Ralph Brinkhaus has called for unity on the CDU and CSU after the defeat in the federal election. “We have to change how we work together,” said the CDU politician at the Young Union’s Germany Day in Münster. Loyalty and solidarity should be the focus again. Brinkhaus referred as a positive example in the election campaign to the SPD, which stood like a bloc and was successful without content. “After an event like the one on September 26, you can’t just ignore normality and go on and on,” he said, describing the historically worst result in a federal election as “devastating”.
“People did not want our top candidate to become Federal Chancellor. I am sorry for Armin Laschet. He is a good Prime Minister in North Rhine-Westphalia and a decent person.” Brinkhaus emphasized that he did not duck back and take responsibility after the defeat.
The day before, Laschet had assumed sole responsibility for the historically poor performance of the Union with only 24.1 percent at the Junge Union. CSU boss Markus Söder had canceled his appearance at the Union’s offspring.
“But shouldn’t lose our pride”
Brinkhaus expressly thanked the outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel for 16 years as Chancellor. The CDU politician said he had crossed over with Merkel several times, as was the case with the issue of migration. But: “Germany has been governed better than most other countries in the world over the past 16 years. Thank you for that and for your commitment.” At the same time, he pointed out that in future the Union should no longer be dependent on just one person. It is important that the Union is perceived as a team.
Brinkhaus called on the party to be confident. “You can fall down, but now it comes down to getting up again. We have lost an election, but we shouldn’t lose our pride. I won’t crawl into the plenary chamber,” said the CDU / CSU parliamentary group leader. With reference to indiscretions from internal meetings, he sharply attacked party friends. “It’s a question of attitude. Internal matters must remain internal,” said the group chairman. Anyone who does not have the attitude that the political opponent is not in their own party cannot go with them on the way back to the Chancellery.
In the subsequent discussion Brinkhaus drew the displeasure of the Junge Union. A delegate had asked him for his opinion on how the search for a new party leader should look. The CDU politician did not want to commit himself and compared the questioner to a journalist. The JU chairman Tilman Kuban joined the discussion and criticized Brinkhaus for the statement. The guest stayed with them and referred to his moderating role in the parliamentary group.
In addition to economic expert Friedrich Merz, health minister Jens Spahn, foreign politician Norbert Röttgen and economic politician Carsten Linnemann, Brinkhaus is considered a possible candidate for the CDU leadership and thus as the successor to party leader Laschet.
“That’s too clumsy with me”
On another point, too, Brinkhaus did not hit the nerve of the delegates. He sharply attacked the exploratory results of the SPD, Greens and FDP. “This is the tightest left-wing agenda that we have had in Germany for decades.” However, the plans are “not financed at all”. The paper contained “pitifully little” on the areas of technology and innovation or on the implementation of climate targets, he continued to criticize.
Germany is also heading for a “big city coalition”, “because life in rural areas will not take place”. A delegate said with a view to the FDP chairman: “The thesis that with Christian Lindner socialism breaks out in Germany is too clumsy.”
Previously, CDU boss and candidate for chancellor Armin Laschet and the former Union parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz had found words of praise for the traffic light plans. “We could have done a lot there,” said Laschet, for example. “The paper that was presented is fine.” Merz spoke of a “considerable paper”.