Friday 17th December 2021
Merz promises a fresh cell treatment
“Will have many new faces in the leadership”
The designated CDU party leader Friedrich Merz goes on the offensive after his victory in the member survey. They want to overtake the SPD and bring the CDU forward with “authentic personalities with very specific issues”.
After his victory in the CDU member survey, the designated party leader is already setting the course for the renewal of the party in order to end up in front of the SPD again in the next federal election. “Yes, we have to work on the issues, but we also have to work on the people who belong to them,” said Merz in an interview with ntv. “The CDU was always strong when it connected authentic personalities with very specific issues. And that is a task that I will also face.”
The SPD won the election because it made a consistent election campaign aimed at a candidate who was determined at an early stage. “Above all, it was the trust in the person that enabled the SPD to achieve this relative election victory. They now have nine seats in front of us in the German Bundestag. It’s not as if we have now become a small splinter group and they SPD has risen to its old bloom. We are very close together and that can change again.
According to Merz, it is not the party chairman alone that matters, “but the team around it.” He will ensure “that we also have many young new faces in the leadership of the party”. In the coming days Merz will take care that the CDU gets younger candidates and that the entire face of the party becomes fresher and more dynamic. “Anyone my age can do that too.”
The base has suffered in recent years because it often no longer knew what “this CDU actually stands for,” said Merz. “This is not going back to the 80s or 90s. We live in the 21st century, in the third decade. And of course we will have to talk about the next ten years and not the last ten years. And I trust that to me. “
Merz received an absolute majority of 62.1 percent in the member survey. Norbert Röttgen received 25.8 percent of the vote, Helge Braun 12.1 percent. The approximately 400,000 members were able to make a preliminary decision on the chairmanship for the first time in the history of the CDU. Officially, the successor of incumbent Armin Laschet has to attend a digital party conference on 21./22. January to be elected. It is considered certain that the delegates will stick to the vote.