After the 2021 election, the party was divided, gutted in terms of content and disoriented. It has recovered under the new chairman. That would be an excellent result – if the question didn’t remain: Is the boss also suitable as chancellor?
In Neukölln of all places, one might say. There is hardly any part of Germany that is as foreign to Friedrich Merz as this Berlin district. After the Neukölln New Year’s Eve riots, the CDU leader spoke with disgust about “little pashas”. When he came to the district shortly afterwards for an election campaign appearance, the then governing mayor Franziska Giffey was very upset about it. There was a demonstration against Merz in front of the hall. That was in January 2023. Now the CDU leader is coming back to Neukölln anyway – and with him a thousand other Christian Democrats. Because that’s where your federal party conference is taking place.