Laschet’s team of the future: hectically cobbled together | tagesschau.de

A barely comprehensible selection of personnel, hectically cobbled together at the last minute – Laschet’s “future team” is unlikely to convince anyone. The need at the CDU seems to be really great.

The need is great, Laschet as a one-man show did not work. So now: team leader of the future team. Frantically cobbled together, improvised presentation – otherwise the presentation would hardly have been possible in a hurry. Many of the new comrades-in-arms were only called two days ago and brought into the team.

Long hesitation, incomprehensible choice

Why Laschet hesitated for so long is unclear. Didn’t he mean to alienate anyone? Don’t risk internal conflicts? That would be anything but strong leadership, and parts of the party apparently had to literally carry him to hunt when it came to team presentations.

Then there is the choice of personalities. Sure, Friedrich Merz was committed to business and finance from the start, although he exudes the future of the 1990s. Laschet needs him to keep the conservatives and business liberals in the party in line.

How should those responsible for the grievance signal a departure?

Regular voters may like that, but what about those who distrust the CDU after Merkel? Where are other big names in the party, like Norbert Röttgen, probably the most prominent foreign politician in the Union. After all, foreign policy was important enough to Laschet that he put it at the beginning of the election manifesto. Does he see it differently now? Does he claim the limelight?

Most of the team are not so well known that they could develop the traction that the Union needs now. Dorothee Bär from the CSU is well known and has been responsible for digital issues for years, currently as Minister of State for Digitization. So when Laschet criticizes that the country is digitally not set up the way it should be, it is not immediately clear how precisely the woman, who is either jointly responsible for the grievance or who has not been able to assert herself for years, can suddenly change something.

Hardly any prospect of ministerial posts

Perhaps the team is primarily the transparent attempt to finally drive the SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz in front of them. At the end of the performance, Laschet said he was curious to see which team the SPD would present. But who of Laschet’s chosen ones has serious prospects of a ministerial post, that is, of assuming responsibility after the election?

Another inconspicuous date indicates that the CDU wants to rely on a larger caliber in addition to the power of the team: Angela Merkel. Actually, it should only contest the beginning and the end of the election campaign. Now she’s suddenly the headliner at an event related to digitization. And with that Laschet would really have played his very last card.