There is a beautiful saying in the Vatican: “Anyone who enters the conclave as Pope comes out again as a cardinal.” Anyone who is named as a favorite before the election can therefore end up being among the losers in the end. It was a little like that in the Union faction now. The CDU can no longer assign many functions of rank. The office of Vice President of the Bundestag, which the CDU is allowed to occupy, is all the more attractive. In the past few weeks, four possible candidates have been named again and again: the ministers of state Annette Widmann-Mauz and Monika Grütters, Union parliamentary group deputy Hermann Gröhe and the first parliamentary manager, Michael Grosse-Brömer. But on Monday afternoon a new name suddenly appeared in the debate: Yvonne Magwas.
The 41-year-old Saxon has been a member of the Bundestag since 2013, and has been the chairwoman of the women’s group in the Union parliamentary group since 2018. In September 2019 Magwas was also elected Deputy Federal Chairwoman of the Women’s Union. In a party that is dominated by West German, where the average age is over 60 and the proportion of women below 25 percent, Magwas stands for a new beginning in three ways.
On Monday afternoon, the head of the Union parliamentary group spoke out in favor of Magwas as Vice President of the Bundestag. She was “an experienced parliamentarian”, but still relatively young and had a child – she was “in the middle of life,” said Union parliamentary group leader Ralph Brinkhaus. In addition, she won her constituency directly – and that in Saxony.
If the entire Union parliamentary group follows the recommendation in the evening, Magwas can already be elected as deputy speaker of parliament by the new Bundestag this Tuesday.
But how did Magwas come to be chosen? Michael Grosse-Brömer and Hermann Gröhe were considered veritable candidates. Grosse-Brömer has been the first parliamentary manager of the Union parliamentary group for almost ten years. He knows the processes in parliament and the council of elders like little else. The 61-year-old has never been particularly committed to individual topics. But with his composure and his thoroughly self-deprecating humor, he would certainly not have led the Bundestag sessions badly.
Gröhe was CDU General Secretary and Federal Minister of Health. In 2014, when he was elected to the CDU presidium, the party’s most important organ, he decided not to run in the second ballot in order to enable a woman with a migrant background to be elected. “As General Secretary, I have always worked to ensure that our committees represent the party in all its diversity,” said Gröhe at the time. At the beginning of 2018, he had to give up the Ministry of Health because the party-internal pressure on Angela Merkel to bring Jens Spahn into the government had become too great. Gröhe would have liked to remain a minister, but took the decision for Spahn with dignity. This is not something that can be taken for granted in the CDU. That is why the 60-year-old is popular in the party. This time, too, he did not push his way forward. With his experience, Gröhe could well have filled the role of a Bundestag Vice-President.
Only men in top positions can no longer be placed even in the CDU
But in a party in which only men are currently fighting for the chairmanship, and in a parliamentary group that is led by a man, Grosse-Brömer and Gröhe had a problem. If one of them had become Vice President of the Bundestag, all attractive positions would be in the hands of men. And that can no longer even be communicated in the CDU. Gröhe also comes from North Rhine-Westphalia – like everyone else interested in the CDU chairmanship.
Widmann-Mauz (55) and Grütters (59) would have had very good chances. The two are also very experienced. Widmann-Mauz has been in the Bundestag since 1998, Grütters since 2005. Both are ministers of state for the Chancellor, both sit on the CDU Presidium – and neither of them comes from North Rhine-Westphalia. But the two have blocked each other in the past few days. Widmann-Mauz relied on her support in the Women’s Union – she is their federal chairman. Grütters believed that the Union faction had the greater support. Neither wanted to withdraw for the other. That was the chance for Yvonne Magwas.