Lessons from the CDU party congress: Spahn plays foul, Merkel breathes a sigh of relief

Lessons from the CDU party congress
Spahn plays foul, Merkel breathes again

From Sebastian Huld

A short CDU party conference focused on personnel elections is history. He is rich in knowledge: Laschet was underestimated, the opposite applies to Merz. Röttgen has been rehabilitated and the real winner was not even available.

1. Merz can't

Two years and a month after his surprisingly weak application speech for the CDU party chairmanship, Friedrich Merz delivers in the new edition of this race: again an exceptionally weak speech. He talks about his ambitions to become chancellor, although initially it should only be about the party leadership. He speaks of himself that he is said to have a problem with women. And wants to refute the accusation that his wife and daughters would not criticize him on this point. As a motivation for his candidacy, he says with a grand gesture his concern for future generations – as if that were a unique selling point. It seems as if Merz did not let anyone outside his inner circle check the speech in advance. The speech is evidence of his opponents' accusation of not being a team player. A better speech might not have torn it out. The fact that Merz once again lacks a sense of the right tone must also make his disappointed followers ponder.

2. Röttgen is rehabilitated

Exactly seven years and eight months ago, the then Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety was kicked out of the Merkel cabinet. Back then, Röttgen was unanimously blamed for the CDU's defeat in the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia because, as the top candidate, he did not want to move to Düsseldorf regardless of the outcome of the election. Röttgen has now been rehabilitated. The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the German Bundestag was criticized for his candidacy for the CDU chairmanship in the spring. Röttgen interpreted the advance as selfish and assessed his prospects as hopeless. On Saturday, with 23 percent of the votes, he achieved a better result than Jens Spahn, the third-placed candidate from 2018. Röttgen was able to convince many delegates with his concept of the future party and on Saturday he inherited Spahn's place in the CDU presidium – Spahn moved into the Circle of Vice-Chairs. An extraordinary political comeback for the 55-year-old, who can now become many things again, but no longer has to prove anything.

3. Laschet – a gummy bear with a steel core

He did it again: Laschet refuted all skeptics and won a reasonably clear election victory against Friedrich Merz, who had been favored for a long time. This is reminiscent of his victory in the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia in the spring of 2017, which hardly anyone thought he could do until the end. Laschet often seems a bit harmless, boring, erratic. Nikolaus Blome, the RTL / ntv political director, came to the conclusion after his election victory: "Armin Laschet sometimes looks like a gummy bear, but inside he's made of steel." This is mainly on Laschet's broad side against Merz, Germany needs "no CEO, no chairman". Laschet can hand out when it matters. After these triumphs, who still dares to deny him any chance of running for chancellor?

4. Spahn rushes forward again

Jens Spahn's chances of the Union's candidacy for chancellor have diminished somewhat after this weekend. Two short minutes were sufficient for this, when Spahn appeared on the screen as one of three questions asked of the candidates shortly before the vote. The forum was primarily intended for the simple delegates, who obviously had no more questions for the applicants. Neither did Spahn, he instead recommended Laschet. In the social media, not only Merz supporters interpreted this approach as a foul. The penalty followed on the foot: In the elections for the posts of the five chairman deputies, the Federal Minister of Health was elected with the clearly weakest result of all applicants. Spahn is said to have as much impatience as political talent. It is quite possible that this unsolicited interference within the party will hang on him for even longer.

5th point for Paul Ziemiak

At the farewell there was once again a lot of praise and warm words for the now former chairwoman Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. What she was not praised for: having made former JU chairman Paul Ziemiak General Secretary. His name, however, will be associated with this successful party congress for many months. In the pandemic, digital party conferences are a calling card for the digital competence of parties. Really every CDU speaker bursts with pride at this optically successful and technically largely smooth digital party congress; the first with a choice of people. Laschet praised that Ziemiak had organized the event in a "grandiose" manner. It was already clear beforehand that the 35-year-old would keep his post and prepare for the federal election campaign – Laschet was the first of the three candidates to promise this. Even the previous chairwoman was not always in the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus because of her position as Federal Defense Minister. Laschet will have to handle a pandemic from Düsseldorf in the coming months. This gives Ziemiak even more weight. In the past two years he has become a political heavyweight in the CDU. Now he is the secret winner of this party congress.

6. Merkel can breathe easy

Two times in a row, the Chancellor had to fear that, of all things, her party nemesis Merz would take over her legacy. After the AKK victory in 2018 and now the Laschet election, Angela Merkel can breathe a sigh of relief: Friedrich Merz's chancellor chances are now zero. A third time he is unlikely to run for chairmanship. The big reckoning with the Merkel era is missing. Norbert Röttgen was also not Merkel's favorite. She appreciates Laschet for his balancing nature. His enthusiasm for Europe promises continuity in this policy area, which is so important for Merkel. Laschet guarantees Merkel an acclaimed departure from the big stage. It will be exciting to see whether she, for her part, will be busy campaigning for Laschet.

And otherwise?

Programmatically, little has changed at this party congress. The debate on the new policy is still not over. Before a Bundestag election program can be written, a candidate for chancellor must first be found. Saxony-Anhalt's Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff has recently moved into the Presidium because the former Thuringian State Chief Mike Mohring had made it impossible to join the Presidium in the course of the Kemmerich affair. Haseloff got a strong result, also in recognition of the Magdeburg government crisis that he had resolved for the time being. Mohring, on the other hand, who is running as a direct candidate for the Bundestag in the fall, has applied as one of 33 applicants for one of the 25 federal board positions. With 527 votes, he just moved into the board in 25th place.

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