With the C in CDU it’s such a thing. Everyone knows it means “Christian,” but everyone interprets it differently. “When you’re out and about in secular politics, the C is the compulsion to be humble, knowing that we as human beings only give the penultimate answers,” says party leader Friedrich Merz – who is known for some things, but certainly not for humility. Norbert Röttgen, on the other hand, sees the C as an “absolute unique selling point” for the Union. There are also Christians in other parties, but there is only the Union, which derives its politics from the Christian image of man, Röttgen believes.
But not everyone sees it that way either. Greenpeace activists have already stolen the C from the CDU logo at the Berlin party headquarters. Reason: Christians have to protect creation, but the CDU fails to take the necessary measures – the party therefore wrongly bears the C in its name.
The CDU naturally saw things differently at the time. It is all the more astonishing what can now be read in the election analysis presented by the party. Because it is suggested that the CDU should steal the C itself.
After the heavy defeat last September, the party also asked internal and external experts for advice. General Secretary Paul Ziemiak wanted the result of the federal election to be dealt with relentlessly. The Mainz history professor Andreas Rödder is one of these experts. The man is also a member of the CDU, before two Rhineland-Palatinate state elections he sat in the shadow cabinet of the then top candidate Julia Klöckner. He is considered a conservative in the party. And this Rödder, of all people, is now recommending his party in the election analysis to think about deleting the C in the name.
The C could be a barrier for non-Christians
The C is an “established brand name” that still represents “a fixed identity feature” for many party members, writes Rödder. In an increasingly de-Christian society, however, the C could be a barrier for non-Christians and “signal exclusivity where the Union is actually aiming for integration”. There are therefore “good reasons for a cleansing of the naming issue” with which “the CDU could visibly and in harmony with center-right parties in Europe locate itself in the tradition of Western values and the Enlightenment”.
In Switzerland, the members of the Christian Democratic People’s Party (CVP) decided in a ballot in October 2020 to say goodbye to the C in the party name – also to enable the merger with another party. The CVP is now called “The Center”. According to a country report by the CDU-affiliated Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation, the CVP’s decision is “historic”. He was “probably the party’s most far-reaching attempt to open up new groups of voters.” However, only the coming years will tell whether the calculation will work out and whether the trend will be reversed in the election results.
In his election analysis, Rödder points out that the party name in the CDU has “always” not been a matter of course. In this context he reminds of Eugen Gerstenmaier. The long-serving President of the Bundestag and a devout Christian already had reservations about the C in the name during the founding phase of the Federal Republic. In 2022, “it can also be argued that the time of classic Christian democracy in Europe is over,” writes Rödder. There is also the question of whether the Union, with its naming, “is not adhering to an outdated understanding of the ‘limping separation’ of state and churches”. The professor therefore recommends his party not to shy away from the debate about the C or “about an affix to the name”. .
The party leadership has not yet commented
The party leadership has not yet commented on the initiative. But a lively debate has arisen in the CDU – in which Rödder has so far remained alone.
“Anyone who wants to delete the C is taking away from the conservatives the foundation of values, the standard and the orientation,” says former Secretary General Ruprecht Polenz. The financial policy spokeswoman for the Union faction, Antje Tillmann, writes only briefly about Rödder’s initiative: “He decides, thank God, not.”
The deputy head of the employee wing, Dennis Radtke, doesn’t believe in the professor’s analysis either: “Why should the CDU want to say goodbye to its silverware?” Radtke asks. After all, the C is “not a marketing gimmick that has become a hindrance in the secular zeitgeist”.
The chairman of the Evangelical working group of the Union parties, the longstanding State Secretary and member of the Bundestag Thomas Rachel, is even clearer. “Rödder’s intended deletion of the C from the party name would destroy the core identity of the Union,” he says. Because Rödder is subject to “a fundamental misunderstanding”: The C is “due to its universal message, ideologically not exclusive, but plural connectable, inclusive and integrative”. It is “more attractive than ever before in times of a decline in values and a lack of social orientation, not least for non-denominational people and those of other faiths”.
In Laschet’s election campaign, the C stood for chaos
In order to be more successful in elections, the party does not have to abolish the C, but rather “make the C shine more brightly again through a credible attitude and politics,” says Rachel. The Christian image of man must remain “orientation and compass” for the two Union parties.
Incidentally, during the election campaign Angela Merkel campaigned for Armin Laschet as chancellor by pointing out that she had always “experienced him as a person and politician for whom the C in the name of our party is not just any letter, but in everything he has done “Compass”. After the election campaign, however, this sentence is more of an argument against the C in the name. Because a compass was not seen in Laschet and his CDU last year. During the election campaign, the C in the party name stood for chaos.