Friedrich Merz: These tasks await the future CDU leader

party congress
These construction sites await the future CDU leader Friedrich Merz

It won’t be long before Friedrich Merz has reached his goal: After the election at the online party conference on Saturday and confirmation by postal vote, he can probably take over the office of CDU chairman at the end of January. A big challenge awaits the 66-year-old. He has to realign the party after the heaviest defeat in its history in the general election. The list of tasks for the future CDU leader is long:

Friedrich Merz: Reforming in the permanent election campaign

Merz will have two months before the first mood test in the Saarland state elections on March 27th to set the first accents. Schleswig-Holstein will follow on May 8th and North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous federal state, on May 15th. Finally, on October 9th, elections will take place in Lower Saxony. The CDU is part of the government in all four states, with the exception of Lower Saxony where it also provides the prime minister.

Programmed dispute about the group presidency

Can Merz take on the role of “opposition leader”? To do this, he would need the chairmanship of the party as well as the parliamentary group. Because only this guarantees extensive speaking time and media presence in the Bundestag. But Ralph Brinkhaus has held the post since September 2018. And the 53-year-old from North Rhine-Westphalia made it clear in his provisional confirmation after the federal elections by the end of April that he had no intention of relinquishing the post.

Difficult relationship with sister party CSU

In the analysis of many CDU representatives, the cross shots by Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) against Armin Laschet after the lost power struggle for the chancellor candidacy are a key factor in the debacle in the federal election. Merz also has to reckon with heckling from Munich, because Söder is already facing a state election in autumn next year – and could succumb to the temptation to make a name for himself at the expense of his big sister.

Image of the old men’s party

In the Bundestag, the Union has a proportion of women of 23.5 percent, among party members it is 26.6 percent. The age structure is also a problem. The average age of the members is 60.8 years. The CDU is also considered to be the party of the old men among officials at district level.

The statute commission of the CDU had already proposed in the summer of 2020 that, by 2025, party executive committees from the district level must be made up of half men and half women. Also because of Corona, this has not yet been decided by a party conference, and the project remains controversial at the grassroots level. Merz had also expressed skepticism about the women’s quota.

Membership decline and mobilization deficit

Since 1990, the CDU has lost more than half of its members. Last year their number fell by almost 15,000 to 384,204. The federal election campaign has also shown that the CDU people’s party has deficits in mobilizing its base. Merz has therefore already announced a digitization offensive for member support and now wants to test it in the state elections in Saarland.

Even if he himself becomes CDU chairman through the first member survey in the party’s history, Merz is skeptical about regular participation by the grassroots. “This form of participation in management decisions” must “remain the exception,” he said in November. However, he wanted the party leadership to involve the members more “in factual issues”.

Missing new policy

What does the CDU people’s party stand for? After 16 years in federal government, the profile of the Christian Democrats is anything but clear. The last basic program dates back to 2007. The adoption of a new concept before the Bundestag elections did not materialize despite several years of preparation. Merz now wants to take his time and “probably” have the new basic program adopted in 2025 – i.e. shortly before the next federal election in the same year.

mhö / Martin Trauth / AFP