The CDU politician from Giessen and former head of the Chancellery, Helge Braun, failed with his application for the CDU federal chairmanship. The new strong CDU man Friedrich Merz receives both congratulations and ridicule.
Video
02:07 min.
to the video Helge Braun loses race for CDU chairmanship
End of the video contribution
12.1 percent for Helge Braun: With this weak result, the former head of the Chancellery from Gießen ended up in the Member survey about the future CDU federal chairmanship trailing in third place behind Norbert Röttgen (25.8 percent) and Friedrich Merz (62.1 percent). Merz will be the new CDU boss – and that thanks to an absolute majority without a runoff. The decision on Friday is to be confirmed at a digital party congress in January.
Braun: Merz with “strong result”
“62 percent is a strong result,” admitted Braun on Twitter on Friday, shortly after the result was announced. He will “support our new chairman as much as possible,” he said. The application for the federal chairmanship and the discussions with the members would have been a lot of fun for him: “We are happy to bring the ideas and concepts into the organizational reorganization of our party.”
congratulations
@_FriedrichMerz
. 62% is a strong result. I will do my best to support our new chairman. I would like to thank the many members who took part.
On behalf of the Hessian CDU, Prime Minister Volker Bouffier (CDU) congratulated Friedrich Merz. “He now has a Herculean task ahead of him, in which we will close him and support him as much as we can.” Thanks also go to the two competitors, Röttgen and Braun, who “gave the members the opportunity to make a real choice,” as Bouffier emphasized.
Bouffier had already expressed the expectation in advance that the member survey would bring more calm to the party again. “That has a high potential for pacification,” said Bouffier.
Congratulations with swipes
There were also numerous congratulations for Friedrich Merz from the ranks of the other Hessian parties – but mostly not without a swipe or two. The SPD member of the Bundestag Michael Roth described the election of Merz on Twitter as “good for a high-profile, democratic competition!”.
If the SPD continues to do “a lot right”, “it will help us as the strongest progressive party in Germany, because we are home to progress, modernity and diversity,” said Roth alluding to Merz ‘vita: The 66-year-old was in in the past twice unsuccessfully applied for the party chairmanship, he is considered a figure of identification for the conservative forces in the CDU.
The choice of
#FriedrichMerz
is good for a high-profile, democratic competition! I congratulate! If the SPD continues to do a lot right now, it will help us as the strongest progressive party in Germany because we feel at home with progress, modernity and diversity.
The Green Member of the Bundestag Omid Nouripour also congratulated Merz on Twitter. He was curious “in which corners the ‘old brush’ will end up”, wrote Nouripour. He is looking forward to “the dispute over the best ideas for our country”.
Retro trend and shift to the right
Meanwhile, the congratulations of the two state chairmen of the Greens, Sigrid Erfurth and Sebastian Schaub, were even more ironic. “After the return of ‘Wetten dass ..?’ Friedrich Merz is also returning to the political stage. Perhaps this is the beginning of a new trend ‘back to the 80s’, according to a press release on Friday afternoon.
Meanwhile, the left-wing member of the state parliament, Hermann Schaus, completely waived congratulations. He assessed the success of Merz as evidence of a “shift in society as a whole to the right,” as he announced on Twitter. This is not only expressed in the AfD’s election results, but also “in the 62% for #Merz!”.
End of further information