After party leader Markus Söder spoke out against more women’s quotas in the CSU, the Women’s Union (FU) wants to continue fighting for it in the future. “Equality and the mobilization of young women” is “a matter of survival for our People’s Party,” said Ulrike Scharf, head of the CSU women’s organization, on Monday when asked by the SZ. “We are staying on course,” she announced, “for quota regulations that can be implemented pragmatically at various levels.” However, Scharf defended her party leader: “Markus Söder stands for the modern, sustainable CSU.”
In a subordinate clause, Söder declared the debate about internal party quotas for women over on Sunday. “We don’t need any more quotas in the party either,” he said at the meeting of the CSU party youth. Currently, there is a mandatory proportion of 40 percent women on state and district executive boards of the CSU, and even 50 percent on the executive boards. With his plan to extend the 50 percent quota to district executives, Söder failed at the 2019 party conference. Now he is moving away from it completely.
The FU only announced a new attempt in the summer to finally enforce the quota. She only left the timing open, probably out of consideration for the 2023 state election campaign. Even now, after Söder’s quota cancellation, the CSU women will not seek a dispute that could disrupt the election campaign, which suggests the balanced reaction of FU boss Scharf . She leaves open what happens after the election.