To measure the magnitude of the earthquake that the Thuringian CDU has caused in the Union, it is best to look at Karin Prien this Monday. The leadership of the CDU has just met – for the first time since the joint vote of the Thuringian state parliament members from the CDU, AfD and FDP. Karin Prien is now standing in the foyer of the CDU headquarters together with Secretary General Carsten Linnemann to report on the results of the meeting.
Linnemann and Prien particularly want to talk about migration and education policy. But most of the questions revolve around the incidents in Thuringia. Linnemann and Prien are trying to smooth things over. They report supposedly constructive discussions in the presidium and in the federal executive committee of their party. The Thuringian CDU leader Mario Voigt explained his approach and received a lot of approval for it. But Linnemann and Prien avoid precise statements about how many CDU grandees agreed with Voigt – and how many did not.
Prien, you should know, is not just the deputy federal chairwoman of the CDU. She is also Minister of Education in the cabinet of Schleswig-Holstein Prime Minister Daniel Günther and his deputy in the CDU state chairmanship. Günther strongly condemned the behavior of the Thuringian Christian Democrats. CDU leader Friedrich Merz dismissed Günther’s criticism as an “individual opinion.” And what is Karin Prien doing now?
Merz dismissed the Kiel Prime Minister’s criticism as an “individual opinion”.
“Daniel Günther and I have had almost seven years of close and trusting cooperation,” says Prien. She hardly knows any politician with whom she shares so many basic beliefs. But even Günther and Prien differ in their assessment of the Thuringian events. Prien even rejected the criticism of the CDU from political competition as “almost infamous”.
If Günther and Prien are so different, you can imagine how big the differences are between other Christian Democrats. A good relationship like hers with Günther can withstand differences of opinion, says Prien. But what do the Christian Democrats do, who were not green even before the Thuringian decision?
Linnemann and Prien are therefore trying to close their own ranks by criticizing the political competition. “We would like Lars Klingbeil and the SPD to think a little more about what contribution they can actually make to getting the AfD’s growth under control,” says Prien. And Linnemann accuses the red-red-green minority government in Thuringia of having already voted together with the AfD.
Linnemann and Prien also reject claims that there were agreements between the CDU and the AfD in the Erfurt state parliament. Mario Voigt assured that there were no agreements, both say. After Linnemann and Prien’s appearance, at least one thing is clear: If it were to come out at some point that there was an agreement, Voigt would have lied.
By the way, there is already the next CDU bill in Thuringia, which is likely to cause trouble. The Christian Democrats want to ban “gender language” with a “correct language law”.