Status: 06/15/2022 10:25 a.m
The CDU is again discussing an internal party quota for women. The Executive Board had already approved this in 2020. Will it now be introduced under Merz, who is considered conservative?
It cannot be ruled out that what Friedrich Merz said shortly after his election as party chairman will come true. “You will see one or two suggestions from me in the party that you least expected from me.”
Until recently, hardly anyone expected Friedrich Merz to propose a quota for women to the CDU. After all, Merz is considered the conservative hardliner – or does one have to say it was? Merz has changed and he knows that the CDU must change too. She needs to get younger, more diverse, more feminine. Things cannot go on as before, Merz had made it unmistakably clear even before his election.
“I will not shy away from any conflict with those who are the top dogs and say to them: Be careful that we don’t become the old men’s party.”
There was no approval at the party congress
To meet top dogs, Merz does not have to go to the Arnsberg Forest. You sit in many offices of the CDU, are prime ministers, state leaders, district executives. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer tried to change that and initiated the women’s quota. The board of directors at that time agreed, but the necessary approval of a party conference did not come about.
Friedrich Merz is in a dilemma. At the base it is not everywhere as harmonious as it appears on the outside. The fact that Merz supports alliances with the Greens causes some stomach ache. And now the women’s quota? Yes, says General Secretary Mario Czaja and indicates that Merz thinks similarly. “He always said that the women’s quota is the second best solution, but nobody has given us a better one.”
Men still dominate
Men continue to dominate in the CDU. Although the party leadership around Merz has become more female and younger, not much has changed across the board. Only around 26 percent of party members are still women – just like in the 1990s under Helmut Kohl. Not to mention women on boards.
Therefore, there are now well-known quota fans. Daniel Günther, Bernd Althusmann, Mario Czaja and Karin Prien are among them. And Friedrich Merz? “If we can’t think of anything better, I’m all for it.” So it could actually be that not Angela Merkel or Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, but Friedrich Merz is making the CDU more female by quota.