analysis
At the Junge Union’s Germany Day, CSU boss Söder loudly criticized the Greens. CDU leader Merz, on the other hand, appeared to be state-supporting and serious. Two very different performances.
The Israeli flag on a large screen and solemn sounds: It was not the usual triumphal march when CDU leader Friedrich Merz arrived at the Junge Union (JU) with Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor. Rather, it was a great show of solidarity for the State of Israel and the Israelis, in which the usual party politics temporarily took a back seat.
It is clear that the Hamas terrorist attack is personally affecting Merz. His voice becomes brittle and falters as he talks about his visit to a Jewish high school in Berlin. About high school graduates who cannot feel safe on the street and in the subway. It is one of the CDU leader’s rare emotional moments.
More different Dealing with the Greens
Then follows the expected half-hour reckoning with the politics of the traffic light, but without the populism of the past election campaign weeks in Bavaria and Hesse. And Merz is opening the door to the Greens again in Braunschweig, at least a little. There is no rejection of cooperation, but the path of transformation with constant regulation and bureaucracy will not be followed, says the 67-year-old.
CSU leader Markus Söder is completely different: He delivers fireworks of Green criticism to the party’s young talent, calls the party the “hard ideological core of the traffic light” and calls on Chancellor Olaf Scholz of the SPD to dismiss the Green ministers.
Söder’s statement that Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock should finally represent German interests can also be seen as rather difficult. Because while Söder is rumbling in Braunschweig, the Foreign Minister has been jetting around the world for days to mediate in the Middle East conflict. Söder seems to be still in election campaign mode, while Merz is more supportive of the state. Both are united in putting massive pressure on the traffic lights on the migration issue.
Merz gives way to the question Candidacy for chancellor out of
In Braunschweig, Merz is doing what JU leader Johannes Winkel has long expected of him: the party leader should be “tough on the matter and smart on the language,” also with regard to the migration issue. In contrast to his predecessor Tilman Kuban, the 31-year-old Winkel is not a proven Merz fanboy. Statements like that Merz is “currently” doing a very good job given the surveys are quite remarkable.
There is still broad support for Merz at the Junge Union 2023, but it no longer goes as far as it did under chairman Kuban, says political scientist Julia Reuschenbach from the FU Berlin. When questioning Merz, for example, a JU member wants to know how he feels about a joint “Union Council” between the CDU and CSU, which the Junge Union has been calling for for a long time and which could decide on the next candidate for chancellor. Merz tries to dismiss the topic.
The questioner places a finger in an open wound. After the last dispute between Söder and Armin Laschet over the candidacy for chancellor, the CDU and CSU still have not agreed on a procedure for 2025. But the times when people meet casually and have breakfast about running for chancellor are over, says Winkel. Especially since powerful young CDU prime ministers like Hendrik Wüst, Daniel Günther and Boris Rhein also want to have a say.