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The CDU has a new Secretary General: Carsten Linnemann. The new one is an old acquaintance in the CDU. One who can sharpen. In terms of content, he ticks like party leader Merz – and that could be a problem.
Carsten Linnemann often just sparkles with energy. When he’s on stage, and he likes it, he gestures, raises eyebrows, and you can hear his enthusiasm—even when it’s about something as dry as the new policy. “If we want to inspire enthusiasm for the future, this country needs optimism, confidence and courage again,” he called out to the audience at a party event in June. “We have to shed the despondency and lethargy that there is.”
The CDU also wants to appear less despondent in the future, with a general secretary who belongs to the “Attack Department”. So far that has been lacking. Although the CDU is in the opposition, it hardly benefits from the dissatisfaction with the traffic light government, but the AfD all the more.
Linnemann wants “pure CDU”
Linnemann can come to a head and endure debates. He proved that four years ago when he demanded that children first learn German before they start primary school. Despite the headwind, even from within their own ranks, Linnemann stuck with it. And just recently, the CDU adopted mandatory language support for preschool children as an official party position.
He stands for the principle of “support and challenge,” says Linnemann after he was unanimously appointed by the party committees as acting general secretary: Doing more for the people who can no longer work is a question of solidarity. But anyone who receives social benefits from the state even though they can work should be obliged to work.
Well connected in the party
Carsten Linnemann studied economics and worked at Deutsche Bank, among others, before moving into the Bundestag in 2009. He is well connected in politics and in the CDU, also because he headed the business wing of the CDU for eight years, the Mittelstands- und Wirtschaftsunion (MIT).
Linnemann is economically liberal, Catholic, a conservative, as he is in the book. Just like party leader Friedrich Merz, no sheet of paper fits between the two. And so Merz congratulates warmly, he is looking forward to a very close and good cooperation.
That has been the case for the past year and a half. After the federal elections, some even thought Linnemann would be the party leader. But he stood behind Merz – and became his vice. Linnemann, who has been responsible for the new policy since then, was able to show that he has the qualities of a general secretary, can organize debates and sharpen the party’s profile.
One economic liberals party leader?
But what does it mean for the course of the CDU when two men from North Rhine-Westphalia, two conservative economic politicians, are at the helm? The question of how far the two reach and represent the entire spectrum of the party, they had discussed, says Merz. But in their current role, they wouldn’t just represent one wing, the party leader insists: “We feel just as committed to economic policy issues as we do to socio-political ones.”
Linnemann is 45 years old and still has ties to his birthplace Paderborn, where he grew up as the son of a bookseller. Otherwise, he keeps a low profile privately. As the new General Secretary, he will now have his hands full: “I have to get to work now and support the election campaigns. We have to be able to campaign,” he says, with a view to the upcoming state elections this year and next, adding: ” That’s going to be hard.” For someone like Linnemann, that should be just the thing.