Procedure for Laschet succession: How much basis can the CDU take?

The CDU member survey is more than just about Laschet’s successor. The CDU is also wrestling with a fundamental question: How much grass-roots democracy does the party want to allow in the future?

The members should only be allowed to decide once who should become the new party leader, emphasized Armin Laschet at the press conference today. It’s about his successor and a basic understanding in the CDU. How much grass-roots democracy can the party take? This question resonates from now on.

For some it’s a blessing. That was clearly felt at the district chairperson’s conference on Saturday. For too long they have had the feeling in the district associations that they work differently than the federal executive committee in Berlin. The past personnel decisions would have been made differently by many at the grassroots level, most recently with the question of the candidacy for chancellor.

Parts of the base with abdominal pain took note of the result in a night session in April. You feel confirmed today. But there are also those who are concerned that a member survey will open Pandora’s box and that the new chairman will not be able to recapture the evil: the concern that the legitimacy of the committees will be damaged, that the grassroots will continue to revolt more in the future that the CDU will continue to face long procedural and personal debates in the future.

A consequence of the dispute

Similar to what the SPD experienced after the last federal election. But what is part of the self-image for social democrats to be able to argue about a matter properly, throws the CDU out of step, also because the voters do not forgive the Union. The election result is also a consequence of the sister dispute in the Union.

The newly elected Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hendrik Wüst, put this in a nutshell today. “My concern is that we come to decisions quickly so that clarity can be found quickly. The CDU was not founded for self-employment, but to take care of people’s concerns.”

Wüst has to win an election in May, and arguments are not a good companion. The voter expects unity from the CDU. That is why the timing was discussed for a long time today. The campaigners from Schleswig-Holstein, Saarland, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia have time on their necks. You would have preferred a party conference in December. This was discussed in the federal executive committee.

Result open

The process takes time, so the arguments from the Adenauer house. It will now occupy the CDU for a few weeks again: The result and consequences are open. While the traffic lights are gathering, the CDU is once again indulging in a long personnel debate. The agreement on the procedure, which even plans a possible runoff election, also shows that there is little hope in the party leadership so far that the possible candidates will agree on a team solution in advance.

If there is also a runoff election, it quickly becomes clear to everyone that there might be two camps facing each other in the future. So the new chairman would have a lot to do right from the start. He has to involve all positions, keep the CDU in the middle and still sharpen the profile. Because they are all united by a concern that they will no longer be a people’s party.

This includes integrating the economic wing in the same way as not leaving the workers wing and the Eastern associations to their own devices. In East Germany no federal elections are won, but they always lose. Also a realization of the poor election result of the Union in September.

Mike Mohring made this clear again today in the federal executive committee. He says: “If the CDU is to remain a people’s party, it must not lose the East. Every team that can stand for the future of the CDU must give an answer to how the associations in the East, which are in an existential crisis, have to be stronger and can be better supported. ” There was applause in the federal executive committee. Just one of many tasks that the future party leader has to solve.