In May next year he is to be officially elected as the new general secretary at the party congress.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin The designated CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann is trying to position his party with a clear law-and-order course. With a view to the recent riots in outdoor pools, he called for immediate punishment of the perpetrators.
Anyone who attacks people at noon in the outdoor pool has to sit in front of the judge in the evening and be judged, the 45-year-old told the “Bild am Sonntag”: “There is a need for fast-track procedures against violent offenders, the judicial system must be organized accordingly.”
CDU leader Friedrich Merz had nominated Linnemann as the successor to the hapless Mario Czaja in the hope of finally getting the party back above the 30 percent mark in the voters’ favour. The AfD is currently benefiting more from the poor appearance of the traffic light than the Union.
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That also explains the sharp tones of the East Westphalian, who as long-standing chairman of the Mittelstands- und Wirtschaftsunion (MIT) has made a name for himself primarily as an economically liberal politician. Now he wants to make sure that people know what his party stands for.
Linnemann also explained in the “Bild am Sonntag” which groups of voters he has in mind: “In Germany there is a quiet but clear middle-class majority that sticks to rules, that goes to work in the morning and goes to the sports and music club in the evening committed.”
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And this majority, Linnemann believes, doesn’t think much of the fact that the traffic light with the new citizen’s allowance has softened the earlier support and demand principle of the Hartz IV system. That’s why the CDU, when it comes back to government after the next federal election, wants to take on the citizen’s income again: Anyone who can work and receives citizen’s income must also take a job, said Linnemann. “Otherwise he can expect no help from the state.”
With its first attempts to raise its profile, the party’s hopes for the future are not only met with approval in its own ranks. The chairman of the employee wing (CDA), Karl-Josef Laumann, has already reminded Linnemann that, as Secretary General, he has to represent the entire spectrum of the CDU, including the social wing.
Linnemann is to be officially elected at the party conference in May 2024. Until then, he still has plenty of opportunity to make it clear what the CDU should stand for in the future.
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