The ministers are giving up their Bundestag mandates in favor of younger MPs.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin The repositioning of the Union’s personnel is picking up speed after the disappointing result in the federal elections. The two CDU ministers Annegret-Kramp Karrenbauer and Peter Altmaier surprisingly announced on Saturday that they would be giving up their Bundestag mandates in favor of two younger colleagues. Instead, 38-year-old Nadine Schön and 42-year-old Markus Uhl are moving into parliament again.
Economics Minister Altmaier justified the move with the poor election results of the Union and the will to make room for younger people. “We have to do everything we can to win back this young generation,” he said, referring to many younger parliamentarians from the SPD and the Greens. Altmaier and Defense Minister Kramp-Karrenbauer agreed to remain in their ministerial offices until a new government is in office.
The withdrawal announcement is a further step in a historic upheaval in the ranks of the Union, at the end of which there is to be a personnel realignment. This should also be accompanied by a generation change. The head of the Junge Union (JU), Tilman Kuban, together with the MP Philipp Amthor, in a guest post in the “Welt am Sonntag” called for the next generation to be given a chance. Only then will the CDU “have a future as a people’s party”.
CDU leader Armin Laschet announced on Thursday that he would propose to the party committees to convene a party congress. In addition, he wants to moderate a process of transition in which both party leaders, the presidium and the federal board are to be renewed. Possible candidates for the party chairmanship include the former Union parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz, foreign politician Norbert Röttgen and Health Minister Jens Spahn.
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Demand for member survey
However, there was also criticism of Laschet’s proposal. Leading Union politicians had called for the next party chairman to be determined through a member survey. “We have to learn the lessons from the past. A leadership without a broad base is doomed to failure, ”said the deputy union leader in the Bundestag, Gitta Connemann, the Handelsblatt.
The SME and Economic Union (MIT) decided on Friday to make a request for a member survey. A decision on how to proceed for the CDU and who should lead this process significantly could be made on Monday – then the CDU federal executive board will advise on the next steps.
For a binding membership decision, however, the statutes of the CDU would have to be changed, which is why a survey of the grassroots could more likely be seen as a guideline that the candidates could then adhere to. According to reports in the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”, several CDU politicians also suggested appointing a transitional chairman without considering the next federal election in 2025.
The chairman of the parliamentary group for small and medium-sized enterprises (PKM), Christian von Stetten, even called for the entire CDU presidium to withdraw in “Bild am Sonntag”. If a candidate for Chancellor is enforced against the polls, against the sister party and against the party base, then he would have to win the elections, said von Stetten with a view to the decision for Laschet. “Otherwise, not only the candidate for chancellor, but the entire party presidium will have an acceptance problem and will have to make their offices available,” said von Stetten.
The headwind of leading Union politicians has meanwhile also reached the sister party CSU. The Junge Union Bayern decided at its state assembly to delete the expression “Draft horse Markus Söder” from an application – all that remained was the expression “fresh team”.
Bad relationship between the sister parties
The relationship between the CDU and CSU also appears to be deteriorating further. Ex-parliamentary group leader Merz warned in a separate newsletter that the cooperation between the two sister parties had never been so bad. “The year 2021 marks a low point in our cooperation and our dealings with one another.”
Above all, Merz criticized the way the CSU dealt with the CDU candidate for Chancellor Laschet before the election: “That was stylistically, disrespectful and sometimes rowdy.” The outgoing Federal Minister of Economics Altmaier, on the other hand, called on the sister parties to unite: “The new CDU leadership and Markus Söder have to form a strong team. This is the only way to be successful again, ”said Altmaier.
For his decision to withdraw, he and Kramp-Karrenbauer won approval across party lines. FDP board member Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann wrote on Twitter: “To forego his mandate in order to make room for younger MPs in the midst of a difficult upheaval in one’s own party, testifies to great character and inner freedom.”
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