He made it on the third attempt. Friedrich Merz has been elected as the new CDU boss. Can he save the CDU from its crisis? This is how the press comments on the CDU top election.
First, he competed against Jens Spahn and Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer – and had to leave the top CDU post to Spahn. In the next lap, Merz then met Norbert Röttgen and Armin Laschet. In the end, the prime minister from North Rhine-Westphalia won the race. Merz was not deterred by this and now competed a third time. His competitors: the former head of the Chancellery Helge Braun and Norbert Röttgen.
Friedrich Merz prevailed against both of them in the first membership decision in party history with 62.1 percent. At a party congress in January, he is to be officially appointed as Armin Laschet’s successor. This is what the press writes about Friedrich Merz’s victory:
“Southgerman newspaper”: Compared to Friedrich Merz, Armin Laschet was the prince carnival of the CDU, but unfortunately the session had to be canceled. Friedrich Merz, on the other hand, is the man on Ash Wednesday when the hangover is fought and cleaned up. If the CDU wants to regain its profile, it has to differentiate itself more clearly from the three parties of the Ampel coalition. And yet the line that the Christian Democrats now have to walk is narrower than many think, between right-wing populists and extremists on the one hand and the broad-based three-party coalition on the other. (…) Under Friedrich Merz, the CDU will have to redefine itself. She will have her very own identity debate. But that’s exactly what she has to do to find herself again. “
“Südwest Presse”: “The membership vote of the CDU brought two realizations: Friedrich Merz is actually the chairman of the base hearts. The participation of 66 percent not only exceeds expectations, but also the rate of comparable decisions of the political competition. Nevertheless: The hard times at the CDU are only beginning now. Only gradually does it seem to the Union what it means to be an opposition. Merz had promised that there would be no shift to the right with him.
“Leipziger Volkszeitung”: “Friedrich Merz, of all people, who never succeeded in overcoming the differences with Merkel, is the party’s new trauma therapist. If he wants to be successful, he will have to merge and integrate into the CDU. If Merz is involved in a power struggle If the Union parliamentary group presidency is overthrown, that will be difficult. And just following the program of the economic wing close to it will not be enough. In the opposition it is easier than in the government to propagate 100 percent of your own proposals – after all, they are not Coalition compromises are more necessary. But the solutions must first be there. “
“Handelsblatt”: “For Merz the election is certainly a great personal satisfaction. He ran three times before he was able to step out of the shadow of his former rival Angela Merkel. The turning point could not be stronger than the Merkel years. Merz takes over the helm the Christian Democrats. He has now finally beaten the Merkelians. A possible loser is Ralph Brinkhaus, the Union parliamentary group leader. Unlike the other two applicants, Merz has not ruled out taking over the parliamentary group chairmanship. The result should give him a tailwind in his argumentation, both offices belong in one hand. “
“Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”: The SPD can no longer claim the title ‘The political comeback of the year’ exclusively for itself and Olaf Scholz. Friedrich Merz ‘clear victory in the first round of the CDU member survey plays in the same league, even if this success does not help to move into the Chancellery, but only to the top floor of the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus. (…) Trusting his popularity among the party base, he also made a third attempt to become CDU chairman. His assessment that he had more supporters among the ‘simple’ members than with the ‘establishment’ was not deceptive. According to the statutes, Merz will not be elected until the party congress in January. After this preliminary run, however, it will be a formality with an even better result. “
“General newspaper”: “Anyone who expects a right-wing Merz who once wanted to halve the electorate of the AfD will be mistaken. The 66-year-old may not be the young savior of the Union. But he is simply too smart to oppose the invocation of traditional recipes wanting to profile the traffic light of Olaf Scholz. Merz knows that the Union must also find contemporary answers to the limitation of climate change, the lag in digitization, the restructuring of industrial society and also for controlled immigration. “
“Stuttgarter Nachrichten”: “So Friedrich Merz. Honestly? The CDU base has decided in favor of the 66-year-old Sauerlander as the new party chairman. With such a surprisingly undisputed approval on top of that that one can confidently call it overwhelming. Pointing the way beyond the day. The vote is the one settlement with all those hapless, confused governing bodies that pushed two federal party conventions to make questionable personal decisions without caring about the basis or taking them seriously. The yes to Friedrich Merz, which so many members breathe a sigh of relief, and the hard-working second ballot superfluous and pouring the vote of the responsible federal party conference in concrete for the end of January is what its initiators had aimed at: an overdue rebellion by a base that had been ignored for far too long and found to be too easy. “
“New Onsabrück Newspaper”: “The picture of Friedrich Merz, which was drawn by parts of the public, no longer corresponds to reality today. He understood that he needs the women in the party to be successful. He also knows that he is part of the pithy economically liberal slogans in the broader society. And he has not spoken for a long time that he wants to bring back AfD voters in droves. He must not move the CDU to the right, but must lead them to new clarity. Merz has emphasizes that his choice is expressly not a preliminary decision for the candidate for chancellor in 2025. In case of doubt, he will have to let one or the other go first.
The long fight against Merkel: Friedrich Merz’s political life in pictures
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“Nordkuruier”: “‘At the age of 66, life begins’ – the unforgettable Udo Jürgens once sang. Well, Friedrich Merz starts at least one new political episode in his life. That a party gave a 66-year-old with a strong result to restart the stranded The Christian Democratic steamer hoisted onto the command bridge says a lot about deep longings and painful wounds from which the CDU suffers. Merz lovingly referred to the fact that the CDU-internally as a ‘conservative bone’, a result of political errors and turmoil in the last phase of the Merkel era The new captain can certainly be trusted to bring the disoriented party slipping away on course. But: Which course will Merz set? Does the content of yesterday or tomorrow count? The ‘newcomer’ has to answer these questions quickly, otherwise the CDU ship with the paint will crash People’s party on the next political cliff. “
“Swabian Newspaper”: “The CDU has a new party chairman, the third within three years. It also took Friedrich Merz three attempts to rise to the top. The fact that the members were surprisingly clear in favor of him shows how great the longing is The CDU is after a clear, but also conservative political line – and after a new beginning after Merkel. The highest priority for him must be that the CDU arrives in the opposition – not only with reason, but also with passion.
In 16 years of government responsibility, the CDU has pushed substantive debates aside for far too long because it was elected anyway because of the Merkel bonus. But the Union also has to learn the attack mode again if it does not want to appear like an obsolete model alongside the fresh traffic light coalition. Many young people have already turned their backs, and this trend could accelerate. This demands two things from Merz: greater integrating skills than he has shown so far, and exactly the bite that he already has. Only if he can do both will he stay on the ball as party leader and the CDU as a party. “
Voices from abroad
“The standard”: “There is obviously a great longing in the CDU for a ‘strong man’ who directs all his energy to party work and at the same time can stand up to the traffic lights made up of the SPD, the Greens and the FDP.
Merz is undoubtedly one of those. The opposition’s opportunities on the political stage are limited, and Merz will know how to use them. His conservative profile can be a clear alternative to the traffic light positions and should liven up the political discourse in Germany. On the other hand: Merz is not the savior that many think he is. Despite all commitments: He is a man of yesterday, not one for tomorrow. If you want to move forward, don’t choose a 66-year-old at the top. He is needed for the transition because after so many years with Merkel the party has bled out in terms of personnel. “
“Neue Züricher Zeitung”: “Merz is the right man to assign a clear programmatic center of gravity to the disoriented party. That will do both his party and democracy in Germany as a whole good from yesterday, who will massively push the party to the right, did not catch on with two-thirds of the voting members: it was too obviously not the result of an analysis of the politician and his positions, but an attempt to prevent him in the last few meters. (…)
Under Merz’s leadership, the CDU must now succeed in formulating an answer to what a liberal-conservative bourgeoisie can look like with attraction. It is high time for Germany’s democracy that the ruling party, which it sees itself as natural, can recover in the opposition and prove its worth as a programmatic alternative as well as a constructive opposition. “