Hanover Right at the beginning, Friedrich Merz at the lectern in the exhibition hall in Hanover makes it clear what he is about. Of course the delegates would talk about the party, its form and structure. “It is more important that we talk about our country and what a CDU-led federal government would do differently. For that we have to give ourselves momentum. That’s what matters.”
Wasn’t it Helmut Kohl who shaped Europe? Angela Merkel, who guaranteed savings in the financial crisis? And Konrad Adenauer, who enforced the western connection? All “on a clear course”, as a feature film shows? This story should touch the delegates. “With a clear course” is the title of this 35th federal party conference of the CDU.
It is the first meeting that the 66-year-old denies as federal chairman. After 16 years of government under Angela Merkel – she apologized due to illness – after almost three years of power struggles, which Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer won first, then Armin Laschet – they both came – and finally Friedrich Merz. He has been on target since January and wants to get the party back on track: back to the Chancellery.
With this first party conference in attendance since 2019, the Lower Saxony CDU top candidate Bernd Althusmann should also get the decisive impetus to soon no longer be Economics Minister under the SPD, but Prime Minister.
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No wonder Merz first caresses the soul of the party, praising the past few months under his leadership and not talking about the party’s problems and concerns. “We’re back in first place among the German parties,” he praises in view of the poll numbers. The Sauerland and former EU parliamentarian emphasizes the friendship with Europe, demonizes anti-Semitism and the AfD and sides with Ukraine. Then he takes on the federal government.
>> Read here: First party congress under Friedrich Merz – The CDU has to clarify a lot
“You can’t solve the problems of the time with children’s books and philosophy alone,” he etches in the direction of Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) and quotes from one of Habeck’s children’s books, which is about a power failure. “We are not Bullerbü, we are the fourth largest industrial nation in the world,” says Merz and is sure of the loud applause of the delegates.
Merz advocates nuclear energy
Shortly before the two-day meeting, the party leadership hastily submitted a motion on energy and economic policy. The answer to the “supply shock” on the energy market can only be “full power, with everything that is available to us”, demands Merz. Of course, this also includes nuclear energy. He once again calls on Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) to stop Habeck and the Greens, the “red-green-yellow ship of fools”.
The climate cannot be saved by avoiding carbon dioxide alone. New technologies are needed. Merz advocates fracking and the underground storage of CO2. “Germany must remain an industrial country.”
Althusmann, as conference president, applauds with satisfaction up on the stage. In Lower Saxony, people vote on October 9th. The CDU is stuck in the polls at 28 percent, while the SPD is constantly at 31 percent and could currently even govern with the Greens, who have 19 percent. The new chairman, the hopeful Merz, has not moved yet, which is being observed with great thought in the party.
>> Read here: Working until 68 or 70? CDU wrestles with the concept for the pension
In the past few days, however, Merz has been clever, most recently in the Bundestag. The energy question drives the people in the federal government as well as in Lower Saxony. The Greens, and with them their media star Habeck, fell by three percentage points in favor with the voters, while the Union slowly climbed towards the 30 percent mark. At least 28 percent are.
The chaos of the last few weeks and months in energy policy was too big, from the botched gas levy, the crude argument that nuclear power plants should be kept as an emergency reserve instead of a basic supply in times of energy shortages, to Habeck’s statement that a baker is not immediately an insolvency case, only because he no longer bakes and sells bread because of the exploding energy prices. So many glitches pay off for political opponents, even if they don’t have much to offer themselves.
The power struggles have left deep trenches
Problems of the CDU remain in the shadows. The power struggles of recent years have left deep rifts that even Merz has not been able to fill up to this day. He still hasn’t converted the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus into the campaign headquarters. On the contrary. At the party headquarters there was a dispute about office space and cell phones. Merz should sweep with a hard broom after the 16 years under Angela Merkel, set topics and lead debates. After all, the CDU wants to become opinion leaders again. A role that she had to give up to the Greens.
>> Read here: Friedrich Merz: In the Bundestag the hunter – in his party the hunted?
The expectations are correspondingly high. “In the last few months, because of the war in Ukraine, we have rightly focused on the work in parliament – Friedrich Merz pointed out the mistakes of the traffic light government and arranged for arms deliveries to Ukraine,” said the head of the Junge Union, Tilman Kuban, the Handelsblatt. “Now it’s just as important that we regain more substance in the party. Only if we initiate structural and content-related reforms now will we have a chance of being chancellor again in 2025.”
After his speech, Merz receives six minutes of applause, enough to elicit a relieved laugh. “That was warm, honest applause,” stated NRW Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst immediately afterwards. To all those who ask why the market economy party has long been promoting electricity price brakes, he says: “In this situation, intervention in the market is justified.”
Günther calls for a “clear sign of unity”
Wüst is also chairman of the Prime Ministers’ Conference and wants to incorporate many of the Union’s proposals into the government’s plans. “The next relief package has to be in place,” he demands. If necessary, it ends up in the mediation committee of the Federal Council. That’s why Wüst, like Merz, thinks about the party congress. “We should not underestimate how unimportant constitutional issues are to people. Answers to the crisis are important now.” Althusmann also appealed. “Let’s make sure we don’t forget the people.”
“A clear sign of unity,” said Schleswig-Holstein’s head of government, Daniel Günther, with a view to the upcoming state elections. The party has known since the general election at the latest: disputes cost votes – and power quickly.
Later in the day, however, the delegates will still be discussing, some fear vehemently: the debate about a women’s quota, but also about a company year or a collective bargaining obligation for companies contain plenty of explosives.
Merz says nothing about all of this in his speech. An appeal or a campaign could only pour oil on the fire, it was said among experienced party participants.
More: How Friedrich Merz is trying to solve the CDU’s male problem