CDU
Merz proposes Linnemann to the CDU committees as Secretary General
CDU leader Friedrich Merz with Carsten Linnemann, who is to become the party’s new general secretary. photo
© Michael Kappeler/dpa
Does the change bring a new poll boost for the CDU? Party leader Merz should expect important impulses from the economic expert Linnemann. At the same time, an old topic continues to torment the CDU leadership.
Against the background of poll numbers below 30 percent, Merz is likely to have decided to change the office of Secretary General. Linnemann is regarded as an expert on economic issues. Merz should expect support on this topic – the party leader wants to put economic policy back into the focus of the CDU. Under Merz, Linnemann is already responsible for the work on his party’s new basic program.
From 2013 to 2021, Linnemann was head of the Mittelstands- und Wirtschaftsunion (MIT) – with around 25,000 members, the largest party-political business association in Germany. The current MIT chairman Gitta Connemann praised Linnemann in the “world” as a fighter who is characterized by inventiveness. The Paderborn native has been in the Bundestag since 2009 and has been party vice president since 2022.
Applause from the group and countries
There was applause from the Union faction. “Carsten Linnemann is a real stroke of luck for the CDU. Not only because of his economic and socio-political competence, but also because he is passionate about the CDU,” said Parliamentary Secretary Thorsten Frei (CDU). The federal government is failing when it comes to economic policy issues. “That’s exactly where we have to set the traffic light. Carsten Linnemann is the right person for this.” Linnemann also showed in the process for a new basic program that he could inspire people.
CDU federal executive board member Serap Güler told the “Rheinische Post”: “It’s good that we now have a general secretary in Carsten Linneman who can sharpen the economic and political profile of our party.” That was necessary “in view of the situation in which the CDU is”. The Rhineland-Palatinate CDU leader Christian Baldauf spoke of a “real coup by Friedrich Merz”. The change is “above all a win for the party”.
Czaja should promote social issues for the CDU
Czaja was elected Secretary General in January 2022 with a good 94 percent of the vote. There has been dissatisfaction in the party for a long time – the Berliner was accused, among other things, of not being sufficiently present in public. He was not well received in the countries either, it was heard. Merz announced that he would personally work to ensure that the former Berlin Senator for Health and Social Affairs took on a prominent position in the area of health, care and social policy.
Maaßen’s party exclusion occupies CDU leadership committees
The top committees of the Christian Democrats also want to deal with the decision of a district party court, which rejected the exclusion of ex-Bundesverfassungsschutz President Maassen. Accordingly, he should get his membership rights back.
The district party court issued a “reference” to Maassen for a guest article in the magazine “Die Weltwoche”. It accuses him of assigning a “left wing of the CDU” to an “ideology of the so-called anti-Germans in the left-wing parties”. According to the federal CDU, an appeal can be lodged against the decision – then the state party court in Thuringia would be the next instance. If, in turn, an appeal were filed against his decision, the Federal Party Court would have to decide.
CDU spokeswoman: advise further steps after careful examination
A spokeswoman for the federal CDU announced careful consultations. “Today, the tenor of the decision of the joint district party court of the CDU Thuringia was sent to our authorized representative,” she said. “We have not yet been informed of the reasons for the decision.” The committees would now be informed. “After receiving and carefully examining the reasons for the decision, the Presidium and the Federal Executive Board will discuss further steps.”
Maassen, who has been a member of the CDU for many years, is the head of the Union of Values, which is considered to be particularly conservative, but which is not a party organization. In the 2021 federal election, he ran in a constituency in southern Thuringia, but failed.
Maassen is not just any member of the CDU, said the first parliamentary director of the SPD parliamentary group, Katja Mast, to the German Press Agency in Berlin. “He ran for the CDU for the Bundestag. He has long since broken through the much-vaunted firewall against the right and with him his local party. I expect that CDU leader Merz will not let it go.”