"How is that supposed to work?": Merz accuses CDU leaders of leadership failure

Friday March 19, 2021

"How is that supposed to work?"
Merz accuses CDU leaders of leadership failure

The Union is in crisis. In a video link of the SME Union, Friedrich Merz is now sharply critical of the leadership of the CDU. Six months before the general election, the party was not even rudimentarily prepared, neither in terms of content nor in terms of personnel. He is evidently not alone in this view.

The dispute over the course and the right way out of the crisis is intensifying in the Union. In an internal video link of the Mittelstandsunion (MIT), in which the economic wing of the CDU and CSU is organized, according to information from "Spiegel", violent allegations were made towards the party leadership and the federal government.

Friedrich Merz also sharply criticized the state of the CDU in the switchboard, accusing the party leadership of leadership failure. "Even the results on Sunday were not nice. But the fact that there was no reaction at all from the party leadership on Monday and everyone pretended that practically nothing had happened, I find that irritating," said Merz according to participants. Six months before the federal election, the CDU is not even rudimentarily prepared, neither in terms of content nor in terms of personnel: "How should it work? How should it work?"

In the switch of the MIT leadership, in which around 50 people took part, there was predominantly "bewilderment" about the current state of the Union and the passivity of leading Christian Democrats, the article continues. "We have to see to it that the Union now gets a program – otherwise that's it," MIT boss Carsten Linnemann is quoted as saying.

Several other speakers accused the federal party and its chairman Armin Laschet of lack of plan and the federal government of serious failures in fighting the pandemic. Several speakers also called for a quick reshuffle of the cabinet. Individual participants have even called for the Chancellor to withdraw, it is said.

The Union is currently in crisis. In addition to the results of the state elections, the mask affair in the Bundestag faction is the main burden. In the middle of the week, the approval for the Union in the RTL / ntv trend barometer was only 29 percent, compared to the previous week it fell by four percentage points.