parties
CDU: State leaders warn federal party to be united
Hamburg’s CDU state chairman Dennis Thering calls on his party to unite. photo
© Christian Charisius/dpa
Dennis Thering has been state chairman of the Hamburg CDU since April. In Hamburg he sees the CDU well positioned. In the federal government, he hopes for further impetus under the designated new Secretary General.
“You don’t do that in public, you discuss it with each other. And then in the end you decide on the best candidate.” At the same time, he expressed confidence that the CDU will continue to grow in public perception under the designated new Secretary General, Carsten Linnemann.
Because there is still room for improvement in the polls of the Union in the federal government, “especially with this poor performance of the traffic light coalition,” said Thering. “Of course we can’t be satisfied that we’re not constantly above 30 percent.” Party leader Friedrich Merz also recognized this. “That’s why we have now made the change in the office of Secretary General.”
Schulze: Party shouldn’t look for main opponents
According to a newspaper report, Saxony-Anhalt’s CDU chairman Sven Schulze believes that his party has made a mistake in proclaiming individual competing parties as the “main opponent”. “I recommend that we focus on ourselves and not look for a main opponent,” he told Halle’s Mitteldeutsche Zeitung. Most recently, CDU leader Friedrich Merz described the Greens as the “main opponent within the federal government”.
Schulze said the Greens were “competitors and opponents”. However, there are differences within the Greens: “Personally, I could well imagine working with someone like Winfried Kretschmann from Baden-Württemberg.”
Schulze also criticized the lack of profile of his party at the federal level. “I think: With this performance by the federal government, the CDU should be stronger nationwide.” What is needed is a recognizable alternative to traffic lights. “We have to make it clearer how we would govern ourselves. I mention the issue of the heating law: we could have distinguished ourselves more if we had said in detail what our own solution would look like.”
Hope for Carsten Linnemann
In Thering’s view, the CDU must underpin with clear demands and clear concepts that it is the best alternative to the traffic light coalition at federal level. “We haven’t been able to do that as well as we would have liked in the last two years,” said Thering. “But I’m in good spirits that Carsten Linnemann will now further increase public visibility.”
A dispute on the open stage about content and personnel is now at the wrong time and only helps the political opponent. “In this area you can learn a lot from the Hamburg CDU at the federal level. In the end, you always get the furthest with unity.”
The background is statements by North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst and his Schleswig-Holstein colleague Daniel Günther, who, in view of a growing AfD, had spoken out in favor of a center course and against populism – which was understood as indirect criticism of party leader Merz.