Saturday 30th October 2021
Laschet succession
Members can choose a new CDU boss
With a large majority, the district chairmen of the CDU vote for the members to choose the new party leader. Time is of the essence: the next state election will take place in March. By then, the topic should be cleared.
The CDU wants its around 400,000 members to vote on who should become the new party chairman. “Today we are opening a new chapter, a new chapter in membership participation,” said CDU General Secretary Paul Ziemiak after a conference of the district chairmen of his party in Berlin.
The majority at the district chairperson conference was “overwhelming,” said Ziemiak. “The next chairman or the next chairman of the CDU in Germany should be determined by carrying out a member survey.” The dual leadership also discussed in the party, however, was “not a big issue”. The debate among the district chairmen was very constructive, but also very critical.
The CDU had invited its 326 district and 27 district chairmen to Berlin to work through the historically poor result of the federal election of 24.1 percent and to discuss the procedure for electing the new party leadership. The conference itself was only able to obtain a picture of its opinion and not make any binding decisions. These are to be met next Tuesday at meetings of the Presidium and the Federal Executive Board.
According to current law, the election of the chairman must take place at a party congress. The party is relying on the previous vote of the members at this party congress “will be accepted and respected”, emphasized Ziemiak. The election of the incumbent CDU chairman Armin Laschet was similar. He was elected at a digital party congress in January, after which he was confirmed by the delegates by postal vote. His rivals Friedrich Merz and Norbert Röttgen did not run for this crucial ballot, although this would have been legally possible for them in purely theoretical terms.
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The call for a stronger involvement of the members in the new election of the chairman had become louder since the federal election. In the morning at the conference hotel, members of the Junge Union unfurled a banner reading “CDU membership decision now!” The JU chairman Tilman Kuban then welcomed the decision made in the hall. “That is a correct and important signal that the Junge Union has long wanted.” His organization had already requested such a member survey in 2019. “We are on the right track to have a motivated party base and to take this motivation with us into the new beginning.”
The vote of the district chairpersons conference was also welcomed by two potential candidates for the chairmanship. “The presidium and the federal board should follow the clear vote on Tuesday and initiate a member survey if there is more than one candidate,” wrote Merz on Twitter. Röttgen tweeted: “I can understand this decision and I welcome the fact that our members are part of the new beginning of the CDU in this way. The Presidium & Board of Directors should respect that!”
For Tuesday, candidates are also expected to register for the party chairmanship. So far it has been speculated that in addition to Merz and Röttgen, Health Minister Jens Spahn will throw his hat into the ring. Spahn had already started in 2018 and then supported Laschet in 2020. Union parliamentary group leader Ralph Brinkhaus and parliamentary group vice-president Carsten Linnemann are also traded as possible candidates. All of the named are from North Rhine-Westphalia.
The CDU is under time pressure
The outgoing Chancellor and former CDU chairwoman Angela Merkel emphasized that she would not take part in the analysis of the results and in the discussion about the realignment. “As someone who has left active politics, I will not interfere in these debates,” she told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”. The future of the CDU will now be determined by others.
The re-election of the CDU chairman became necessary because Union Chancellor candidate Laschet had announced after the election failure that he would be relinquishing the chairmanship of the party. Laschet said at the conference, according to participants’ information and with a view to the member survey, that all candidates for the top position should then also accept the results at a federal party conference.
It is unclear when the federal party conference can take place at which the new CDU leadership can be elected. This depends on the time required for the member survey among CDU members. In the party, the time pressure is pointed out because there are three state elections in 2022, in which CDU prime ministers will have to defend their posts – the first on March 27 in Saarland.