Retreat of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group: opposition as an “opportunity”

For two days, the CDU and CSU were in seclusion in Murnau, Bavaria, and the parliamentary group decided to renew itself. Merz demands clarity from the traffic light coalition about how she wants to lead the country.

Friedrich Merz has recently become a little greener on the inside. It wasn’t planned, but it wasn’t preventable either. So now the CDU party leader has six green screws in his shoulder – the result of an operation. He broke his collarbone while on vacation.

The doctor in Munich apologized for the color, Merz says at the CSU/CSU parliamentary group meeting: “I told him that if you sewed it up properly, then I wouldn’t see it anymore.”

Criticize the government, develop your own positions

He has a bigger green problem with the work of Economics Minister Habeck – with the traffic light government in general: criticism of the gas levy, of the plans for energy supply, of relieving the burden on citizens. He says of the Federal Chancellor: “There are mistakes that shouldn’t happen in such an office.”

That is the Union’s current role: firstly, to criticize the government and, secondly, to develop its own positions, which initially only end up in decision papers and much less often in laws. The largest opposition faction took two days to concentrate on both missions in Bavaria and to pursue them in isolation.

Steam over the outdoor pool

A dignified hotel in Murnau is the setting for the meeting of the Union’s faction leaders this Friday. Hotel guests record what is happening on their cell phones. In the morning, when the sun is not yet shining so brightly, the rising steam above the outdoor pool makes a beautiful picture.

A heated pool while the CSU and CSU talk about the energy crisis and saving gas inside? It is waste heat from a combined heat and power plant, explains the hotel management, knowing about the effect of the pictures in these times.

Short exchange of three

Later, parliamentary group leader Merz and CSU regional group leader Dobrindt sit in the sunny garden with EU Commission President von der Leyen. Short exchange of three. In Dobrindt’s words, it’s about “economy, watts and the world situation”.

Two days exam. The “business wise man” Veronika Grimm and the CEO of E.ON SE, Leonhard Birnbaum, also came to the exchange. Two days of opportunity to raise one’s profile in the opposition, to make exclamation marks while the traffic light works on an agreement on another relief package.

Foggy backdrop on the Zugspitze

Yesterday, at the start, they all stood on the Zugspitze against a foggy backdrop. Alexander Dobrindt knows the scene – not just because it’s his constituency. In 2018 he met the leaders of the grand coalition – with Andrea Nahles and Volker Kauder – here for a retreat. Now the Union is in opposition.

The CSU regional group chairman delivers a remix of the Franz Müntefering classic, according to which the opposition is crap: “We can clearly say: opposition is an opportunity for us. But what we experience is: the traffic light is crap.”

The traffic light coalition is not a unitary bloc

If necessary, the Union would be ready to help, says Merz: “If the government fails today, we’ll be ready to take over tomorrow.” But Merz also knows that this is a possible but currently not particularly likely scenario.

As is well known, the traffic light coalition is not a unitary block but a three-color trio. The question arises as to whether the Union wants to tackle all parties equally. There are new black-green state governments in Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia that are opening up new power options for the period after the next federal election.

The Atom Question

But in the faction retreat, it also becomes clear where the differences lie. The Union calls on the federal government to use all forms of energy. At the center is the nuclear issue.

The fact that Greens supporters could live with a short stretch operation, has the ARD Germany trend shown in August. But the CDU/CSU is about more – about continued operation for several years. Merz speaks of a possible one to three years. Dobrindt does not want to argue whether it is about four, five, six years. In addition, those nuclear power plants that were shut down at the end of 2021 should be reactivated. The Greens have abandoned many fundamental positions since the beginning of the war. But these?

Self-imposed renewal

First of all, government in the federal government is a dream of the future anyway. The Union is undergoing a self-imposed renewal that is far from complete. In parliament, she can fully concentrate on the opposition role. The traffic light coalition does not currently need the Union votes.

During the exam, Merz recalled that he had offered the federal government good cooperation. Together, the basic law for the Bundeswehr special fund was changed. “Since then, the federal government has not made use of this offer. I’m not complaining about it. I’m just stating that,” said the CDU chairman in an interview BR24.

Demand at the traffic light

At the end of the two days of retreat, the leadership of the Union faction sends another demand to the traffic light: “We expect that the federal government will finally say how it wants to lead the country in the coming weeks and months,” says Merz.

The ten-page resolution entitled “Clarity in Uncertain Times” has been passed. A bus is already waiting in front of the conference hotel. If you want, you can go hiking together.