CDU leader Merz wants to intensify the political debate with the Greens. They are the main opponents in the federal government. Clear edge against the Greens – that should not please everyone in the party.
In Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia, the CDU governs relatively silently with the Greens. Both Daniel Günther in Kiel and Hendrik Wüst in Düsseldorf are celebrating one year of their black-green alliance these days. The alliance is also repeatedly mentioned as a blueprint for the federal government and thus as a power option for the Union after the 2025 federal election.
“Clear Edge”
But with Friedrich Merz at the top of the party, there is unlikely to be any black-green rapprochement in the foreseeable future. On the contrary, the CDU boss wants a “clear edge” against the Greens. They will be “the main opponents” in the federal government for the foreseeable future.
In the coming weeks and months, we will intensify our arguments with the Greens in particular and, above all, we will also contradict the impression that we are always squinting to the left, so to speak, and saying that we absolutely have to join the coalition with them at some point .
Merz said this in Kiel of all places, i.e. in the black-green governed state of the successful election winner Günther. Yes, he knows that Daniel Günther is governing very successfully with the Greens in Schleswig-Holstein, the CDU leader admitted. But state politics have other issues. Merz does not see a contradiction to the party course, he rather spoke of “division of labor”.
Merz complains “People’s Education Attitude”
The Greens in the federal government would bring large parts of the population against themselves. Merz had previously complained about the Greens’ “obtrusive public education attitude”. Now he added: “The Greens are responsible for the fact that this polarization around energy policy and environmental policy in Germany came about in this way,” emphasized Merz, also with a view to the recent electoral success of the AfD in the Thuringian district of Sonneberg and the nationwide polls the partly right-wing extremist party.
The foreign policy of the Greens is also instructive and moralizing abroad, said Merz. “Not even foreign hosts can offer that.” Last year, Merz exchanged blows with the Green Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock about her concept of a feminist foreign policy, and the opposition leader also worked on Baerbock on other occasions in the Bundestag.
Is Merz the right one? chancellor candidate?
Merz is under pressure within the party. Statements bordering on populism, irritation and personally weak poll numbers make some in the Union doubt whether the 67-year-old is the right man for the 2025 federal election. It is also seen with concern that the Union does not benefit more from the frustration of the population about the traffic light coalition.
The party was just able to avoid a new chancellor candidate debate, started by Wüst. Officially, the Union wants to clarify this personnel in late summer 2024, after the European elections. However, it is questionable whether this will work out as planned by the party strategists.
“We mustn’t kiss”
Behind this is also the question of the orientation of the party. The CDU has been working on a new basic program for months, in order to first clarify what it actually stands for after all the Merkel years. The fact that Merz now identifies the Greens as the main opponent should please the conservatives in the Union. Union parliamentary group leader Jens Spahn recently called for more escalations. “We must not kiss,” he said in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. “We also need simple messages.”
On the other hand, Günther warned: “Populist banging on” doesn’t help the CDU, “people go seamlessly to the AfD”. He advised his party to “take a middle course” and “keep linguistically clean”.
“Communicate Simplified”
But where does the linguistic “stay clean” end and where does populism or even pandering to the AfD begin? Merz warned against not addressing sensitive issues out of concern for comparisons with the AfD. Example of immigration: “Who will probably have to communicate that a little more in a simplified manner,” said Merz. However, he did not want to “enter into any outbidding competition with disparagements and insults with the AfD”.
Of course the firewall is up, emphasized CDU General Secretary Mario Czaja Deutschlandfunk with a view to the demarcation from the AfD. And with a view to his party leader’s recent declaration of war on the Greens, Czaja made it clear: “Our political enemies are those who want to fight democracy, and that includes the AfD.” The Greens are “our political opponents in Parliament”.
Green co-boss Omid Nouripour commented on the statement by the CDU leader: “If someone says: ‘The AfD is so strong, let’s attack the Greens harder’ – I don’t think he’ll get the Nobel Prize for logic for that .”