“I stand by it”
Merz defends private flight to Lindner’s wedding
07/24/2022, 11:28 p.m
The pictures caused criticism at the beginning of the month: Merz and his wife flew in a private plane to the wedding of Finance Minister Lindner and the journalist Lehfeldt. In the ZDF summer interview, the CDU boss takes a position on this. He also distanced himself again from the Saxon Prime Minister Kretschmer.
CDU leader Friedrich Merz has defended his journey to the wedding of Finance Minister Christian Lindner by private plane. He does not regret having traveled by plane, said Merz in the ZDF “summer interview”. “To put it in a nutshell: With this small plane I use less fuel than any official car of a member of the federal government. And that’s why I fly.” He mainly uses his plane for professional purposes. “I stand by it and it’s, if you will, an old dream of mine. Always has been.”
The pictures of Merz and his wife Charlotte made headlines in early July. The CDU leader drove the machine himself to Sylt, where FDP leader Lindner and political reporter Franca Lehfeldt got married. Federal Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir replied on Twitter on Sunday evening. As a member of the federal government addressed by Friedrich Merz, he allows himself a quick fact check: “My company car is an electric car and therefore does not consume any fuel at all. Neither does my bike,” wrote the Green politician and posted a wink smiley.
Merz sees no east-west divide in the CDU when it comes to sanctions
Meanwhile, Merz also commented on other current issues. He has again distanced himself from the statements made by the Saxon Prime Minister and CDU Deputy Michael Kretschmer on the sanctions against Russia. “With Michael Kretschmer, we have a prime minister in our ranks who sees things differently from the Saxon perspective, but that’s not the opinion of the Union either,” said Merz. Kretschmer declared on Tuesday that Germany must mediate in the war between Russia and Ukraine and ensure “that this war is frozen.” Russian raw materials are still needed.
Merz emphasized that there was no east-west divide when it came to the sanctions. Kretschmer is not the only Prime Minister in the East. “He’s not the only one, and all the other prime ministers in East Germany have a different opinion, as does the CDU.” For the refinery in Schwedt, Brandenburg, which supplies practically all of East Germany, alternatives to Russian oil would have to be found, said Merz. “It is absolutely clear that we have a national interest in maintaining the supply. We are discussing the way, but not the goal.” East Germany is particularly affected by the economic consequences of the war in Ukraine and by the European oil embargo against Russia because the Schwedt refineries in Brandenburg and Leuna in Saxony-Anhalt have for decades obtained Russian oil via the “Druschba” pipeline.
Quota for women only “second best solution”
In addition, Merz reiterated his skeptical attitude to a women’s quota within the CDU. Even if he has now made a compromise proposal for a quota, he still only considers it “the second-best solution,” said the party leader. He has never denied that the low proportion of women in the CDU is a problem. “But it’s not the country’s biggest problem.” “I want us to have enough women in the party, more than today,” said Merz. “I would like young women to work for the party and in the party. But that’s about factual issues and not so much about personnel issues.”
The proportion of women in the CDU has hardly changed since the 1990s. In the Bundestag, the Union currently has a proportion of women of 23.5 percent, among party members it is 26.6 percent. The age structure is also considered a problem: the average age of the members is 60.8 years. The party conference on September 9th and 10th in Hanover is to decide on the women’s quota, which has been discussed for years. In June, Merz proposed gradually introducing a 50 percent quota for women for party executives from district level by 2025. But it should be limited to five years.
The “Bild” newspaper reported in mid-July that resistance to Merz’s plan was forming within the Union. According to this, representatives of the Junge Union and the economic wing, among others, are working to prevent the quota. They wanted to introduce a point of order to force a secret vote instead of a vote by show of hands – in the hope that there would then be a clear majority against the quota.
“Speed limit is a symbolic issue”
In the debate about reducing energy consumption, Merz spoke out against a speed limit. “The speed limit is a symbolic issue,” said the CDU boss on ZDF. “In this way we would not solve the problems either ecologically or in terms of traffic.” The CDU has “a very clear common position” on the subject. Even if there are isolated advocates of a speed limit in the CDU who want to introduce a speed limit, he “didn’t think so,” said Merz. That would not solve the country’s problems. There are “perhaps three percent of the routes on which there is no speed limit in Germany”.
When asked whether the speed limit could be used as a bargaining chip in a larger debate about saving energy and energy security, Merz said: “If the federal government wants to talk to us, seriously, which it is not doing at the moment,” the CDU is “ready to do so at any time “. However, this cannot be done according to the previously practiced motto “bird eat or die”, said Merz. “It’s not a way of dealing with it and we’ll be very tough with our positions.”