Status: 01/22/2022 5:28 p.m
The CDU has reassigned its top posts: Mario Czaja prevailed as the future General Secretary with a large majority. There were also personnel changes in the closest management circles – two top women will no longer be there.
After the CDU delegates elected Friedrich Merz as chairman with a large majority at their federal party conference, a new general secretary was also elected. Merz’s preferred candidate Mario Czaja won 93 percent in a digital vote. The 46-year-old Berliner received 875 of 964 votes cast.
The future party leader Merz had previously advertised for the former Berlin Senator for Social Affairs. Czaja is “a big city kid” from the eastern part of Berlin and has now won a constituency that the Left Party had previously held for 30 years. In his application speech, Czaja emphasized social issues such as pensions, child poverty, housing shortages and health care in rural areas. “We have to realign ourselves,” he said, referring to the defeat in the federal election.
According to Merz, Member of the Bundestag Christina Stumpp should become Deputy Secretary General. This item does not exist so far, which is why an amendment to the articles of association is necessary. This, in turn, can only be decided at a face-to-face party conference. According to Merz, the next one should take place on the third weekend in September – “in all likelihood in Bremen”.
Breher remains deputy boss
At the virtual party conference, the delegates also made other important personnel decisions. The ranks of deputy chairmen were re-elected. The Saxon Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer received the best result with 883 of 953 votes cast. 782 delegates voted for the economic politician Carsten Linnemann from North Rhine-Westphalia.
Lower Saxony’s Bundestag member Silvia Breher received 781 votes, Andreas Jung from Baden-Württemberg 768 and Schleswig-Holstein’s Minister of Education Karin Prien 675 votes. Of the previous five deputies, only Breher ran again. The longstanding deputy Julia Klöckner was chosen as the new treasurer. According to the CDU, the former Federal Minister of Agriculture from Rhineland-Palatinate received 607 of 886 votes cast.
New members in the presidency
There were also changes in the CDU presidium, which is made up of the closest party leadership and seven other members. Saxony-Anhalt’s Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff, Lower Saxony’s Economics Minister Bernd Althusmann and NRW Labor and Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann were re-elected. Ex-Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn is also represented again. He got the weakest result with a good 60 percent of the votes.
The integration commissioner of the last federal government, Annette Widmann-Mauz, failed in the election to the presidency.
Image: AFP
NRW Building Minister Ina Scharrenbach, the Hessian CDU parliamentary group leader Ines Claus and the 32-year-old member of the Bundestag Ronja Kemmer are now new to the Executive Committee. The chairwoman of the Women’s Union, Annette Widmann-Mauz, missed out on entering the party’s inner circle of leaders with 434 votes. The politician has been a member of the CDU presidium since 2018. For years she has advocated a 50 percent quota for women in party offices, but this is controversial in the CDU.
Karliczek fails in election
In addition to Widmann-Mauz, another top woman in the Union suffered a defeat: the former Federal Minister for Education and Research, Anja Karliczek, failed in her attempt to become a member of the CDU federal executive board. Only 413 out of 961 delegates spoke out in favor of it. There were 39 applications for the 26 federal board positions that had not already been filled elsewhere. 15 men and 11 women were elected.
CDU party conference: New management team is in place
Anja Günther, ARD Berlin, 22.1.2022 5:36 p.m