Election in Berlin: What Wegner’s election victory means for Merz

At first glance, Wegner’s election victory in Berlin also strengthens the position of CDU leader Merz. But he cannot simply copy Wegner’s recipe for success. He can hardly afford that.

Who would have thought that – even in the CDU they are partly amazed. Ironically, Kai Wegner, whom many in his own party wrote off months ago as the loser in the election, is suddenly the happy winner. Regardless of whether he governs or not: Wegner has won a special victory for the CDU. He is far ahead with his CDU in a big city, the capital.

Wegner scores with classic CDU topics: internal security, economy, migration. He dealt out against the Greens and the SPD, exacerbated problems with migrants who had committed a crime and probably also kept the AfD at a distance. At least the voters ascribe greater competence to the CDU on these core issues.

Bridges to the Greens

That arouses covetousness in your own party. Please stay that way, don’t water it down, that’s what they said at the Berlin CDU election party. But not everyone at the top of the party wants that. In Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia, the CDU governs with the Greens. In Berlin they touch the Greens with pointed fingers. During the election campaign, Wegner raised the bar for a possible alliance, very high.

At party headquarters, the motto now is to build bridges. After all, one thing counts above all for the Christian Democrats: to govern.

Greetings to Munich

And what does the Berlin result mean for party leader Friedrich Merz? Tailwind for the coming elections? Wegner’s victory at least strengthens his position as federal chairman. Because Berlin is the first state parliament that the CDU has wrested from the SPD since Merz has been party leader. That should be a not entirely unimportant factor in the K question. Greetings to Munich, one might think.

Thanks to the Berlin election, Merz has found some air in this internally unresolved issue. Markus Söder still has to win his election in autumn with confidence.

CDU needs broad majorities

But the result in the Red City Hall also poses challenges for the CDU leader. After all, Wegner won the election for the CDU with a clear-cut policy. Others in the party fear that this course will alienate voters, such as supporters of the SPD and the Greens.

Wegner was one of Merz’s supporters when it came to party leadership. And Merz itself probably stands for Wegner’s course. But can he afford it? Hardly likely. If he wants to keep the CDU as a people’s party, he needs a broad majority.

In Bremen and Hesse you have to offer the CDU voters something different than in Berlin. With the success in the capital, however, the CDU election campaigners in Bremen and Hesse should find it easier to fight. In the federal CDU, the party leader must see how he holds the ends together. In Saxony and Thuringia, this election campaign will have been examined very closely. Here, too, the AfD is breathing down the necks of the top candidates. Wegner’s electoral success has revived the conservatives in the CDU.