The CDU leader doesn’t skimp on criticizing the traffic lights – but he doesn’t get personal. The Chancellor doesn’t even appear in his book. Later, the delegates support Merz – a signal for the K question?
CDU leader Friedrich Merz has sworn his party to a quick return to power after the disaster in the 2021 federal election and has received great support for this. In his first re-election, 873 of 981 delegates voted for the 68-year-old.
There were 9 abstentions and 99 votes against. According to the CDU count, which does not take abstentions into account, approval was 89.81 percent. Merz said that with its new basic program, the CDU was “ready to take over government responsibility for Germany again immediately and by autumn of next year at the latest.” The CDU made a sharp declaration of war on the AfD for this year’s important elections.
After the election, Merz said he thanked “for the great vote of confidence.” The CDU will survive the next two years, which will be tough years, with tailwind from this party conference. Merz supporters among the delegates in particular are likely to see the result as a tailwind for the CDU chairman on the K issue. In addition to Merz, CSU boss Markus Söder and North Rhine-Westphalia Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) are still said to have ambitions to run for chancellor.
According to the CDU, in his first election in January 2022, Merz received 94.62 percent at a party conference that was organized digitally due to the corona pandemic. He only became party leader at the third attempt, having previously failed against Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and later against Armin Laschet.
Söder congratulated Merz on his re-election and wrote on the X platform (formerly Twitter) that the CSU and CDU are not only connected by the term sister party, but by close and trusting cooperation. “We stand firmly together and want to move #Germany forward together. Here’s to continued good cooperation.”
At the party conference, Merz received demonstrative support from leading CDU politicians. Wüst said: “Let us support Friedrich Merz together. Let us send a signal of unity.” Hesse’s Prime Minister Boris Rhein called it Merz’s personal achievement for having raised the CDU. With the new program there is more “pure CDU” than ever before. “This is a Merz profile.” Schleswig-Holstein’s Prime Minister Daniel Günther (CDU) said to Merz: “It’s no secret that we weren’t always on the same side in the past.” But he is an excellent party and faction leader.
Merz refrains from sharp personal attacks against traffic light politicians
A maximum of four years of traffic lights is enough, Merz shouted in his speech to applause. “Every day earlier that this drama comes to an end is a good day for Germany.” The CDU chairman avoided sharp attacks against traffic light politicians and did not even mention Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) by name. In his speech on foreign and security policy, he also refrained from again demanding the delivery of long-range German Taurus cruise missiles to Kiev, which Scholz had rejected.
In the event of a takeover of government, Merz announced a radical shift away from central traffic light projects in areas such as security, economic and social policy as well as climate policy. After Angela Merkel (CDU) fell into opposition in 2021 after 16 years as chancellor, Merz tried to make it clear: the Union is back. Especially with a view to the state elections in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg in September, he emphasized that the CDU was fighting for first place.
Applausometer: Almost ten minutes of standing applause
During Merz’s speech there was some silence in the hall; he received applause especially when it came to the distinction between traffic lights and economic topics. The delegates applauded standing for almost ten minutes after his speech. Merz also brought General Secretary Linnemann and his deputy Christina Stumpp to his side – Linnemann is considered the architect of the new basic program with more conservative accents, which is to be decided on this Tuesday. The current one is from 2007.
Linnemann was also confirmed in office with a large majority. 889 delegates voted for the 46-year-old member of the Bundestag, who initially took over the office on a provisional basis in July 2023. 84 delegates voted no and there were 7 abstentions. According to the CDU count, this corresponded to approval of 91.4 percent. Including abstentions, it would be 90.7 percent.
Of Merz’s five deputies, NRW Social Minister Karl-Josef Laumann, newly elected as party deputy, received the best result with 880 votes. He is also head of the party’s social wing. This was followed by the Saxon Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (839 votes), the Baden-Württemberg Bundestag member Andreas Jung (760 votes), the Lower Saxony Bundestag member Silvia Breher (741 votes) and the Schleswig-Holstein Education Minister Karin Prien (556 votes).
Johannes Volkmann, grandson of the former Chancellor and CDU leader Helmut Kohl, was newly elected to the Federal Executive Board. The 27-year-old local politician from Lahnau in Hesse did not mention his famous grandfather’s name in his short application speech. He condemned the traffic light to much applause: it “no longer has anything to offer my generation, except perhaps cannabis.”
Securing peace and freedom
The CDU leader declared securing peace and freedom to be the most important task. To achieve this, Germany will have to invest more in its national and alliance defense capabilities. The armed forces had been neglected for many years – “we were not uninvolved in that,” he admitted.
Economic and labor market policy
Merz called for a reliable economic and labor market policy as well as an “Agenda 2030 with clear perspectives for an economy that should and must remain an industrial location. People must be offered something in return – such as tax exemption for overtime or a tax allowance in their pensions.
Social policy
Merz reiterated that if he takes over the government, the citizen’s money introduced by the traffic light should be abolished in its current form. “Instead, we want a new basic security that really helps those who need help, but also creates incentives and encouragement for those who can return to the job market.”
Union and AfD
It is parties like the AfD that reject, mock and want to destroy many of the democratic values and the common Europe from within, said Merz. They obviously did this with support from Russia. “We hereby declare war on all those who want to damage and destroy our values, our European Union, our democracy.” All democratic parties must ask themselves why they have lost trust. This can only be regained if problems are solved and there is no doubt that “we don’t work with the parties of left-wing populism any more than we work with the parties of right-wing populism.”
Leading culture
Merz defended the concept of the guiding culture, which can be found in the new basic program. “The term does not exclude, but is an all-encompassing bracket around our society in all its diversity, which is subject to constant change.”