“Future team” for Laschet: These eight should turn the tide

Thursday, September 2nd, 2021

“Future team” for Laschet
Let these eight turn the tide

Three weeks before the election, CDU boss and Union top candidate Laschet will present a competence team. The “future team” is supposed to give the Union, which has been shaken in the polls, a further boost. Eight men and women should judge it.

With the exception of terrorism expert Peter Neumann and the former Union parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz, the personal details have not yet been officially determined. Because Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet wants to present his “future team” for the final spurt in the election campaign on Friday tomorrow. But there are several concurring reports about who is supposed to hoist the number of candidates from the Union into the Chancellery despite poor poll results.

Accordingly, these eight should belong to the “future team”:

Peter Neumann

Peter Neumann is responsible for the topic of networking internal and external security in the team. He is director of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization at King’s College London and is an expert on Islamist terror. It is no secret that the researcher thinks Laschet is the right man: Laschet had already brought him to his team in 2017 for the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Before the election as CDU chairman, the scientist supported Laschet and tweeted in December 2020: “Laschet is the only candidate who emphasizes the C in the CDU. The delegates, who ultimately make the decision, will definitely go down well.” The terrorism expert should be right with the last sentence, but this does not quite apply to voters at the moment, as the current trend in Germany recently shows.

In addition to Friedrich Merz, Neumann will definitely be part of the “future team”. He reaffirmed his support on Twitter: “I have known Armin Laschet since 2016, I already supported him in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2017 and am doing it again now. With full conviction. I will explain why tomorrow morning.”

Friedrich Merz

It is generally known that Friedrich Merz would actually rather be in Armin Laschet’s place: party leader of the CDU and candidate for chancellor of the Union. When Angela Merkel announced in 2018 that she no longer wanted to run for the CDU chairmanship, Merz was the first to throw his hat into the ring. In the vote at the subsequent CDU party congress, however, he was defeated by Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. His political comeback after eleven years in business – including as chairman of the board of directors of the investment company Blackrock – failed for the time being.

And also in the second attempt at the beginning of the year, the conservative CDU politician had to admit defeat – this time Laschet. The new CDU leader, however, quickly realized that he would rather have the lawyer Merz as an ally and not as a rival in the election campaign: The native of the Sauerland region received support, especially from the conservative camp of the Union. In addition, the 65-year-old also addresses groups of voters who might otherwise be more interested in the FDP or AfD with some very polarizing statements – for example on migration and poverty.

He has already publicly affirmed several times that the CDU boss is building on Merz – most recently last Tuesday at the economic day of the CDU’s economic council. There Laschet said that Merz was the “economic and financial face” that would also shape federal politics after the election. In the “future team” he should be responsible for the areas of economy and finance.

Dorothee Bear

With Dorothee Bär, Armin Laschet kills several birds with one stone: On the one hand, Bär has been since 2018 Digital Minister of State in the Merkel cabinet. And digitization is one of the topics of the future. On the other hand, the 43-year-old is from the sister party CSU and one of the four women in his “future team”.

Silvia Breher

Outside of the state borders of Lower Saxony, the name Silvia Breher is probably still unknown. But the “first vote queen” won the 2017 federal election with 57.7 percent not only confidently in her constituency, but also the nationwide most first votes of all CDU applicants. Breher, who was elected as deputy federal chairwoman at the end of 2019, is considered to be part of the grassroots. As a farmer’s daughter from the “pig belt” around Cloppenburg and Vechta, the 48-year-old is a member of Laschet’s team who can reach the important group of farmers among the voters. However, according to reports, she should primarily deal with the issue of family policy in the team.

Andreas Jung

Since last Monday at the latest, it has been clear that Laschet is relying on the expertise of Baden-Württemberg’s Andreas Jung for climate protection: The 46-year-old Union parliamentary group vice-president, as part of the climate competence team with young politician Wiebke Winter and member of the Bundestag Thomas Heilmann, presented a 15-point plan CDU committee with which Laschet wants to accelerate the expansion of renewable energies.

Jung, already referred to as the “environmental face of the CDU”, could give the Union a stronger profile in terms of climate policy in the last legs of the election campaign. The lawyer from Lake Constance has been a member of the Bundestag since 2005.

Barbara Klepsch

In Saxony’s government, she has been the only CDU woman in the cabinet since 2019: Barbara Klepsch. As reported by several media outlets, the culture minister from the eastern federal state should advertise Laschet in the next few weeks and contribute to an election victory in the field of work, social affairs and “equal living conditions”.

As the long-time mayor of Annaberg-Buchholz and with her direct mandate for the CDU in the state elections in 2019, the 56-year-old brings a proximity to the base in order to convince voters.

Karin Prien

As a further team member, Karin Prien is supposed to take care of education policy – which is actually the responsibility of the federal states. The 56-year-old is currently Minister of Education in Schleswig-Holstein.

Before that she was a member of the Hamburg parliament for a long time and was already responsible for the subject of education there. During that time she also held the CDU deputy state chairmanship.

Joe Chialo

The lateral entrant in Laschet’s “future team”: The music manager Joe Chialo from Berlin is supposed to help convince people from the cultural scene. In the capital, he runs for the Bundestag in the Berlin-Spandau constituency.

The 51-year-old also went there about two weeks ago with the candidate for chancellor and accompanied by a squad of journalists from door to door to advertise the CDU in the street election campaign.