At the CDU party conference on Saturday, the heads of the CDU and CSU, Friedrich Merz and Marcus Söder, announced that they would open a new chapter in the relationship between the sister parties. Söder apologized for the breakdown in the relationship last year and called for a fresh start. “Although the intention is always to do well together, it’s actually all the more regrettable that we didn’t do so well together last year. We’re sorry and I’m sorry. And it must and will be different . We want that and we know it has to be that way.” The newly elected party leader Friedrich Merz promised that the CDU and CSU will work together and ensure that the Union returns to good strength. “And if we do it well and correctly, then we have a good future. Then we can expect a lot of approval, not only within our parties, but also from the voters in Germany. Dear Markus, your hand is stretched out , mine seizes them. I am pleased that we are working together, two party leaders in two parties and one union. With 875 votes, more than 90 percent, Mario Czaja was elected CDU General Secretary. The East Berliner should complement Merz at the top and bring important, diverse perspectives to the table. “I am optimistic and confident that we will succeed, that we will be able to support the CDU in this current historical moment, where we are in opposition, yes, but where we are modernizing from within and will continue to do so will be a middle-class people’s party, that we will manage to remain a unifying people’s party.” After the heavy defeat in the federal elections, the CDU has come to terms with it personally completely repositioned. Last year, Söder and Merz’s predecessor as party leader Armin Laschet had a bitter argument about the chancellor candidacy. The new CDU leader Friedrich Merz received 94.6 percent of the valid votes cast at the virtual party conference on Saturday. The new deputy leaders of the largest opposition party are now Silvia Breher, member of the Lower Saxony Bundestag, Michael Kretschmer, Prime Minister of Saxony, Andreas Jung, member of the Bundestag for Baden-Württemberg, Carsten Linnemann, the former head of the association of small and medium-sized enterprises, and Karin Prien, the Schleswig-Holstein Minister of Education. In the election for the presidency, the former health minister Jens Spahn, among others, won a place.