It’s only two pictures. But they show in an exemplary way what has shifted in recent years. The CDU was never a feminist party, it never stood out as a pioneer for equality. But she was the party that produced the first female chancellor, the first female European Commission president and the first two female defense ministers. The picture in which Angela Merkel, Ursula von der Leyen and Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer sit next to each other in Bellevue Palace became a symbol of how much Germany has changed. And it was also to the advantage of the CDU.
But now there is a new icon. It shows Malu Dreyer, Franziska Giffey, Manuela Schwesig and Anke Rehlinger in front of the Bundestag. Four social democrats who will soon lead four federal states. Anyone who thinks of powerful women no longer thinks of Christian Democrats. And that is a huge problem for the CDU.
It is no wonder that the CDU is losing popularity, especially among women
Merkel, von der Leyen and Kramp-Karrenbauer have long concealed the fact that there are still huge deficits in the CDU below the top. Now Merkel and Kramp-Karrenbauer are in political retirement – and von der Leyen is far away in Brussels. The malaise in the CDU can no longer be concealed. The party and parliamentary group leader is a man. The Secretary General is a man. The Federal President of the Women’s Union was recently elected from the Executive Committee. There is not a single federal state with a woman at the head of the CDU. There is no longer a female CDU prime minister – eight years ago the SPD and the Union provided the same number of female prime ministers. Apart from Ines Claus in Hesse, there is no CDU parliamentary group leader in any state parliament. And only twelve percent of the CDU district chairmen are female.
A picture from the old days: The then Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the newly elected EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2019 in Bellevue Palace.
(Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa)
In view of this, it is no wonder that the party has lost a lot of popularity among women. In the 2017 federal election, 29.8 percent of women and 23.5 percent of men voted for the CDU. In the election last September, this women’s bonus almost completely disappeared. Only 19.5 percent of women voted for the CDU – among men the party came to 18.2 percent.
CDU leader Friedrich Merz also knows that this is a dangerous development. In May there will be elections in Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia. If the CDU were to lose the state chancellery in Kiel and Düsseldorf after the Saarland state chancellery, Merz would get into difficult political waters.
The lack of women also puts party leader Friedrich Merz under pressure
Last Monday, after meetings of the CDU leadership, when asked whether the women’s deficit would be a problem for the next state elections, Merz replied: “Definitely yes!” He therefore addressed the topic “very clearly and very clearly in the meetings and said that it couldn’t stay like this”. The CDU will “have to deal with this issue,” said Merz. Because you can see “that we have a significant deficit here – also in the way we appear and in the composition of our management bodies”. He was “determined” to change that. But that is “difficult, it doesn’t work overnight”. However, Merz did not say how he wants to change that.
So far, there is only the so-called “quorum” in the CDU: Committees and party lists should in principle consist of at least one third women, but there are many loopholes. In practice, therefore, the quorum is sometimes not observed. As early as July 2020, the CDU Statutes Commission therefore proposed the introduction of a binding quota for women. The decision, on which the commission agreed after a long struggle, provided for a women’s quota of 33.3 percent to apply in board elections from district level upwards from January 1, 2021. In 2023, the rate is expected to increase to 40 percent and 50 percent in 2025. The national average for the party is currently 26.6 percent. Even among new entrants, it is only 28.8 percent.
However, the proposal of the Statutes Commission has not been implemented to date. The introduction of the quota requires an amendment to the articles of incorporation. However, changes to the statutes can only be decided by face-to-face party conferences – and because of the pandemic, there has not been a face-to-face party conference since the statute commission’s initiative.
Above all, Merz now has to explain what he wants. Mario Czaja, his general secretary, spoke out in favor of a women’s quota last November. Merz, on the other hand, is still trying to make a clear statement for or against the quota.