Status: 01/22/2022 02:14 am
He is not lacking in self-confidence, but the expectations are high: the CDU is making Friedrich Merz the new boss today – and then?
Friedrich Merz has probably never been so relaxed about an election. Equipped with a clear membership vote, nothing will happen other than confirmation of his political comeback. Now he of all people is supposed to lead the CDU into the future, but the image of yesterday’s politician sticks to him.
That’s an image I’ve been given, in some cases maliciously, that doesn’t fit at all with my basic attitude and attitude towards life, nor with my political attitude.
Third attempt success
Friedrich Merz – appreciated as well as despised, loved as frowned upon. After two failed attempts to replace Angela Merkel as party leader, the party is longing for a strong man. And nobody should doubt Merz’s strength. Hardly anyone appears with so much self-confidence, although he has never won an election for the party and even his own party leader only at the third attempt.
No swing to the right
Nevertheless, the expectations in the party are high, the frustrated base is looking for the savior. But anyone who believes that Merz will make the CDU more conservative or even move sharply to the right could be disappointed.
There will be no shift to the right with me, there will be a clear profile and I want everyone who sees themselves as Christian Democrats in the broadest sense to find a political home in this CDU.
Content vacuum
A clear profile for everyone – that comes close to a political balancing act. What that means is still open. For the first time, the CDU is replacing almost the entire staff at the top. Then the substantive vacuum has to be filled – after all, the basic program is long out of date. Many hope for a clear edge and something specifically conservative. But maybe that won’t work. Because Merz is working on its image. He no longer rejects a quota for women, and he wants to grant adoption rights to gays and lesbians.
It’s a topic that we’ve been discussing for a long time, and I don’t think anything speaks against it.
The conservative wing may rub their eyes at such statements. Merz suddenly makes politics for the middle? “No, but they may have perceived me a little differently, as I’ve always been,” he says.
The new Merz is also the old one
Merz is professional enough to know that, as chairman of a people’s party, he has to offer politics to everyone. But the new Merz is also the old one when he mercilessly settles accounts with his party. “No program, no candidate, no communication,” he said in an interview with the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. He wants to do better – as CDU leader in the opposition and probably also as leader of the parliamentary group, because Merz would not be Merz if he actually gave up this office. In any case, his goals are clear.
We will be a modern people’s party and I claim to be the most modern people’s party in Europe – and I will also show that in concrete terms.
Ultimately, it will be measured by election results. Let’s start with the elections in Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein. And then, of course, the important state elections in his home state of North Rhine-Westphalia in May – they are likely to be the biggest hurdle in the foreseeable future. He won’t be able to walk towards her as relaxed as he would towards his own.