Former Chancellor Merkel did not accept the invitation to the CDU party conference. Most delegates don’t hold this against her and don’t see a break with the Merkel era. But there is also criticism.
1001 delegates, but one is missing: Angela Merkel. The former Chancellor had received an invitation to the CDU party conference in Berlin, but did not accept it. Merkel played no role in Friedrich Merz’s speech. He neither mentioned her by name nor did the lecture become a reckoning with her sixteen-year chancellorship. However, it didn’t work without a subtle signal of dismissal: With the new basic program, the CDU is not striving for “renewal for its own sake”, but “for better politics”.
Why Merkel didn’t come remains unclear. It was probably the overall situation: on the one hand, Merz, with whom Merkel has had decades of mutual antipathy. On the other hand, the new basic program, which can definitely be understood as a substantive departure from the Merkel era.
Humanly understandable, but still a bit disappointing, is how most delegates expressed themselves in an interview with ntv.de. “I think it’s a shame,” says Fabian Heine from Lower Saxony, who is active in local politics in the municipality of Nenndorf. “I would have liked her to take part. She has had a significant impact on Germany and also shaped the CDU.” At the same time, Heine expresses understanding: “She has consciously withdrawn in the last few months and so, I think, maybe it’s just consistent for her.”
“It’s not okay what she’s doing now”
But there is also criticism. “I think it’s appropriate that you ultimately show your successor respect with your presence. And I miss that,” says Norbert Hollermann from North Rhine-Westphalia. “It’s not okay what she’s doing now by saying: ‘I’m totally refusing this party conference,’ I don’t think that’s good,” said the 67-year-old.
North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament member Raphael Tigges, on the other hand, says he finds it “simply logical” that the former chancellor didn’t come. If she were there, “all attention would really be focused on Angela Merkel,” says Tigges – correspondingly less attention would have been given to party leader Merz and Europe’s leading candidate Ursula von der Leyen; The European elections will be the focus of the party conference this Wednesday.
Corrections or change of course?
In his speech, Merz had at best expressed cautious and indirect criticism of the Merkel era. Going into opposition gave the CDU “the time we needed.” He mentioned the neglect of the Bundeswehr as a failure of the CDU in the past; the CDU was “not entirely uninvolved” in this. Before the party conference began, General Secretary Linnemann added energy and migration policy to this list. He said on ARD that “mistakes” were made in these areas during Merkel’s term in office and that they were now being corrected. He didn’t want this to be understood as distancing himself: Looking back, the CDU doesn’t have to “hide away” from the Merkel era.
It was Linnemann who invited Merkel to the party conference. But she was missing from the ranks of the ancestors. The former Bundestag President Rita Süssmuth, the chairman of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation Norbert Lammert, the former Federal Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière, the former Union parliamentary group leader Volker Kauder and the former Federal President Christian Wulff sat there.
Most delegates surveyed do not see the new basic program as a departure from Merkel. “Everything has its time and the last few years were Merkel years and now they are Merz years,” says delegate Theresa Dietz. “We have to look at where we are and where we want to go. And that’s why we have to give new answers to the questions of the current time. That’s simply what the CDU has always done.” The CDU has continually reinvented itself and looked forward.
“This is a further development”
Your party colleague Norbert Hollermann certainly sees a new course, but also thinks it is the right one. Under Merz, the CDU has become “more Christian-democratic-conservative” compared to the Merkel era. “At the end of her term in office, Ms. Merkel was rather left-leaning. And that is not what I imagine as a policy as a Christian Democrat.”
Former Bundestag member Gabriele Schmidt from Baden-Württemberg, on the other hand, says there was no break with Merkel. “Politics is always changing,” says the 68-year-old. “We no longer have the same conditions, no longer the same image of society as we did seventy years ago or even thirty years ago. It is a further development. This is not a departure, there is no Merkel policy or Merz policy. There is only CDU policy that changes and adapts.”
The 37-year-old state parliament member Andreas Sturm from Baden-Württemberg sees it similarly. “I think we should never talk about turning away, because turning away always has something so revolutionary about it.” He sees the step towards the new basic program as an “evolution”. A party conference is something like a family reunion, says Sturm. “And that’s why it hurts that she’s not part of the family.”
“Yes, she’s missing”
When asked whether Merkel was missing, Theresa Dietz replied that she wouldn’t say so: “This is simply a phase that is now over. Nobody wants to miss their time with her.” Dietz says she joined the CDU when Merkel was chancellor and really appreciated her policies. The young woman doesn’t sound really nostalgic, however: the current times are particularly exciting for young people in the CDU, “because for the first time you’re seeing a new beginning that you’ve never experienced before.” It is “a huge opportunity for young people to get actively involved now, especially in the process of the basic program”.
“Yes, it’s missing,” says Gabriele Schmidt. “We miss her overall in the country. But we have a different government. She has said goodbye to the current politics.” Whether Merkel comes to the party conference is not that important.
It has irritated many in the CDU that Merkel doesn’t find time to visit the party conference, but will give a eulogy for Jürgen Trittin in a week when he is passed by the Green parliamentary group – of all people, Trittin, who has also been in the past black-green rapprochement was a red flag for many CDU politicians. Fabian Heine from Lower Saxony believes the decision is understandable. But he also says: “I think, despite all of this and perhaps with all the criticism that she has had to take in hindsight, it would simply have been fair if she had turned more towards the CDU on one issue or another .”