Armin Laschet advises party leaders on the timetable for renewing the CDU

Personnel and content realignment
The big chair back: Laschet consults with party leaders on the timetable for the renewal of the CDU

CDU leader Armin Laschet wants to present his plans for a staff and content renewal to the party leadership this Monday after the historic disaster in the federal elections. First of all, the closest tour around Laschet, the Presidium, meets in Berlin at 9 a.m. The larger federal board meets from 11 a.m. The Union Chancellor candidate announced last week that he wanted to moderate the renewal process and propose a party congress to the bodies to reorganize.

Lower Saxony’s CDU boss Bernd Althusmann expects a clear announcement. “I am assuming that the presidium will decide on a clear schedule that shows the way to a special party conference,” said Althusmann of the German press agency. Schleswig-Holstein’s Prime Minister Daniel Günther calls for personnel consequences. “Overall, we need a new start and should therefore re-elect our entire board – in the course of this year,” said Günther and criticized the fact that only men always played a role in the debate about the reorganization of the party.

With or without a base?

In the CDU it was recently disputed how important the party base should be in the upcoming generation change. Several top politicians called for a member survey on the future party leadership. Such a survey is possible according to the CDU statute, but it has no binding effect on the decisive party congress.

Other leading CDU politicians consider such a survey to be problematic because if the result is unclear, it could lead to further division. “The CDU Germany has no better organ to consider the basis than the party congress,” said Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble on Sunday during a literature festival in Hamburg.

The CDU chairman must always be fit for chancellor

The role of a mere transitional party leader is also repeatedly brought into play. NRW regional group leader Günter Krings warned against such a step. This discussion seems dangerously abstract to him: “It is clear that almost four years before the next federal election a new chairman cannot automatically claim the candidacy for chancellor. But neither should we elect anyone who we do not trust in this office,” emphasized Krings. A CDU chairman must always be fit for chancellor. “We should still have that much self-confidence right now.”

Laschet had put aside his own ambitions in terms of a personnel realignment and also for possible further negotiations with the Greens and FDP about a Jamaica alliance. However, he did not give a date for a withdrawal from the party leadership. Laschet is likely to hope that there is still a power option if the SPD, the Greens and the FDP fall out in the negotiations over a traffic light government.

The usual favorites

Possible candidates for Laschet’s successor as party leader include Health Minister Jens Spahn, foreign expert Norbert Röttgen, economic expert Friedrich Merz and parliamentary group leader Ralph Brinkhaus. The names of the three prime ministers Daniel Günther (Schleswig-Holstein), Tobias Hans (Saarland) and Michael Kretschmer (Saxony) are also mentioned when it comes to the party’s young hopefuls.

Günther made it clear, however, that he did not see himself on the “front line” in the reorganization of the party. The Schleswig-Holsteiner and Hans will also face difficult state elections in the coming year. Kretschmer must above all take care of the political fight against the right-wing populists of the AfD, who had become particularly strong in the federal elections in Saxony, according to the CDU.

yks
dpa