There is movement in the fight for the successor to CDU boss Armin Laschet. The CDU foreign politician Norbert Röttgen officially announced on Friday that he wanted to take over the chairmanship of the party – making him the first candidate. It is expected that in the course of the day, the executive head of the Chancellery, Helge Braun, will also make his candidacy official. In the coming week at the latest, the former Union parliamentary group leader in the Bundestag, Friedrich Merz, should also comment on his ambitions.
Röttgen announced that the chairwoman of the Hamburg Women’s Union, Franziska Hoppermann, would be nominated as CDU general secretary should he be elected. The 39-year-old was elected to the Bundestag for the first time in September. As party leader, he is not aiming for the Union parliamentary group chairmanship in the Bundestag, said Röttgen.
Like Merz, he had already run for chairmanship of the CDU last January. Both were inferior to Laschet at the time – Röttgen in the first ballot, Merz in the runoff. At that time he did not expect to be elected, said Röttgen. He was there to make it clear that the CDU had to renew itself. This time, too, was the motive for his candidacy – but this time in the expectation of being elected. The 56-year-old has been a member of the Bundestag since 1994, where he most recently headed the Foreign Affairs Committee. From 2009 to 2012 he was Federal Environment Minister.
According to a spokesman for the Hessen CDU, Braun is to be nominated as a candidate by his home association Gießen in the evening. Presidium and board of the Hessian state party meet from 12 noon, at the virtual meeting the 49-year-old wants to present the reasons for his application. Braun is district chairman of the CDU Giessen and a member of the state executive committee of the Christian Democrats in Hesse.
After its poor result in the federal election, the CDU wants to reposition itself. Since last Saturday and until next Wednesday, applicants for the party chairmanship can be nominated. All candidates must be nominated by a party branch such as a district, district or state association. This is followed by an introductory phase until December 2nd, during which the candidates can present themselves and their program. The first round of the member survey should then take place by December 16 – online and by postal vote. The result of a presumably necessary runoff election should be available by January 14th. The new party leadership is to be elected on January 21 at a party congress in Hanover. (11/12/2021)
Traffic light parties want to get more East Germans into leadership positions
The parties of a possible future traffic light coalition SPD, Greens and FDP want to work to ensure that top executives from eastern Germany are more often represented in management positions in the future. This emerges from the final paper of the working group “Equal Living Conditions”, which the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) has received according to a preliminary report. “We are improving the representation of East Germans in management positions and decision-making bodies in all areas. For the federal level, we will present a concept for implementation by the end of 2022,” says the report.
The paper also emphasizes that new federal and research institutions that need to be expanded should preferably be located in the eastern German federal states and structurally weak regions. According to studies, East Germans are underrepresented in management positions nationwide.
The 22 working groups set up for the coalition negotiations between the SPD, the Greens and the FDP should submit their result papers to the party leaderships by Wednesday evening. (11/12/21)
The coalition negotiations will continue on Monday
The coalition negotiations between the SPD, Greens and FDP will enter the next round on Monday. Then the 21-strong negotiating group of the three parties will meet again and talk about the results of the thematic working groups. As the SPD and FDP announced on Thursday, the general secretaries are still on the train. Lars Klingbeil (SPD), Michael Kellner (Greens) and Volker Wissing (FDP) are in an exchange to bring together the 22 working papers.
Little is known about the results of the working groups, which were submitted on Wednesday evening. Several groups could not agree on all points and passed a number of important open questions to the main negotiators. There has been progress in areas such as climate, finance, transport and foreign and defense policy, but the papers of the working groups have brackets – that means that there is still no agreement on the points, as the dpa reported on Wednesday evening.
The party leaderships had given the working groups very detailed guidelines on how to deliver their results: the small groups up to three pages, the large ones up to five, font size 11, Calibri, line spacing 1.5. The individual results should be brought together in the coming days before work on the still open points begins.
At the beginning of the coalition negotiations it was said that the main round of negotiations should conclude the deliberations by the end of November. The previous Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is to be elected Federal Chancellor in St. Nicholas Week from December 6th. He expressed his satisfaction with the status of the coalition negotiations: “My confidence is actually there all the time, and it’s getting better and better,” says Scholz, referring to the schedule. “The three parties are pretty good together.” The feedback from the working groups showed that “a lot of things came together”. The remaining differences are not so numerous that he considers them insurmountable. (11/11/2021)
Greens deny report on alleged waiver of the Treasury
Contrary to the presentation of a report published on Wednesday evening, the Greens do not want to leave the Ministry of Finance to the FDP in a possible traffic light government. “That is wrong. There is no renunciation of any ministry and no definition of who will do what,” said a spokesman for the party Süddeutsche Zeitung on demand.
Previously, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Reported contrary. Accordingly, the Greens should no longer insist on the important ministry. “The Ministry of Finance will not let the formation of the traffic light fail,” reports the FAZ, referring to green negotiating circles. According to the report, the responsible negotiators of the Greens have defined six ministries to which the party claims. This should include the Federal Foreign Office and the transport, agriculture, environment, family and transformation departments.
The Greens had always described the finance ministry as the key ministry to take control of the finances and advance the fight against global warming. It is believed that they are now allowing themselves to be sweetened the renunciation of the finance ministry with concessions from the SPD and above all the FDP on the subject of climate protection. (11/10/2021)
Klingbeil wants to keep his back free for a Chancellor, Olaf Scholz
The designated SPD leader Lars Klingbeil wants to keep his back free for a chancellor Olaf Scholz. “One of the mistakes after the 1998 election victory was that a party chairman, Oskar Lafontaine, concentrated on making life difficult for a Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder. We will not repeat this mistake,” said Klingbeil Rheinische Post. In the past, as Secretary General, he had not always agreed with the candidate for Chancellor Scholz. However, this has always been clarified internally. “The times in which conflicts were carried out in public are over. I will do everything I can to ensure that it stays that way.”
Klingbeil left it open who the designated co-boss Saskia Esken and he would like to become General Secretary in the future. When asked whether he would ask the ex-Juso boss Kevin Kühnert to take over the job, Klingbeil replied evasively: “We are on friendly terms. We sometimes have a different opinion on this matter – but we both want the same political style shape the party. ” (11/10/2021)