Status: 03.09.2021 5:33 a.m.
The Union and its candidate for Chancellor Armin Laschet are under massive pressure in view of the poor poll results. Now a so-called future team is supposed to help. The competition dismisses this as actionism.
Under the impression of crashed approval ratings, Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet gets support from eight experts a good three weeks before the federal election.
According to information from the German Press Agency in Berlin, the “future team” that Laschet wants to present today (9:00 am) at the party headquarters in Berlin consists of ex-Union parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz, terrorism expert Peter Neumann, CDU vice-president Silvia Breher, the Schleswig-Holstein Education Minister Karin Prien, Vice Union parliamentary group leader Andreas Jung, the music manager Joe Chialo, who is a candidate for the Bundestag in Spandau, the Saxon culture minister Barbara Klepsch (all CDU) and the digital state minister Dorothee Bär (CSU).
According to this information, it can be assumed that Laschet has discussed the team composition with CSU boss Markus Söder. The news portal “ThePioneer” initially reported specifically on the composition of the Laschet team. “Spiegel” and the “Bild” newspaper also reported on parts of the team.
Laschet and Union under great pressure
The members of the “future team” should help Laschet to get the Union out of the polls until the federal election on September 26th. Laschet and the Union are under great pressure. In the latest polls, the SPD passed the CDU and CSU with top candidate Olaf Scholz.
In the Union it was stressed that the team was not a shadow cabinet. Laschet had announced several times that in the hot phase of the election campaign, in addition to himself, other prominent figures of the Union linked to issues should become visible.
Prominent minds as part of themed teams
According to the dpa information, it is planned that Laschet, after introductory words, will bring Merz onto the stage in the CDU headquarters as an expert in economics and finance. According to this, Jung should be responsible for the topics “Climate and Energy”, the CSU politician Bär for “Digitization and State Modernization”, Neumann for “Internal and External Security”, Prien for “Education”, Breher for “Family and Generations”, Chialo for “creative industries and innovation” and Klepsch for “social and equal living conditions”.
In a survey by infratest dimap for the Germany trend the Social Democrats are the strongest force again for the first time since February 2017, with 25 percent. If the Bundestag election were next Sunday, the Union would come to 20 percent. That is a minus of seven percentage points compared to the beginning of August – and at the same time the lowest value ever in Germany trend for the Union was measured. Other surveys also see the Union – partly just as clearly, partly tighter – behind the Social Democrats.