Berlin No, Markus Söder could not come to personally propose Friedrich Merz as the new chairman to the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. Unfortunately, Söder could not be there, said the parliamentary group manager, Thorsten Frei, on Tuesday morning. In the afternoon, the CSU chairman has an important appointment in the Bavarian state parliament and as head of government.
Söder had to face a corona debate in the state parliament. Usually the party leaders propose their candidate who should lead the parliamentary center of power. This task has now been completed in consultation with the head of the CSU regional group, Alexander Dobrindt. Pictures of the unity of the rivals Söder and Merz, like in January on a Bavarian lake, fell out on that day when Merz completed his power.
So far, the leader of the parliamentary group was Ralph Brinkhaus, who would have liked to continue. But Merz made it clear to Brinkhaus after his election as the new CDU chairman that he would stick to his mantra: in government times, the chancellery and party headquarters belong in one hand, in times of opposition, the party and parliamentary group chairs.
89.5 percent of MPs vote for the new parliamentary group leader
That’s how it was 20 years ago, when Angela Merkel snatched the presidency away from the then 46-year-old Merz, and this resulted in an ongoing dislike. On Tuesday, the probably last wounds healed in the icon of the party’s economic wing: Merz received 162 out of 186 votes (89.5 percent) and is thus the leader of the opposition in the German Bundestag for the second time in his career.
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The parliamentary group met there, which Merz explained from the Bundesratsbank before his election that “unity” but “freedom of conscience” are important for every elected official, as participants reported. “We want to go back there,” he explained, pointing to the government bench.
The election result is in line with that of the party congress: 95.3 percent were there in January, which gave Merz unrestricted authority for the new beginning. The party speaks of “unity” and “unity”, knowing that the dispute over the past few years has cost power and that only a united union will be able to close the state chancellery in Saarbrücken, Kiel and Düsseldorf this spring hold and possibly to conquer in Hanover in autumn.
No wonder that the faction with Merz also switches to “attack” mode and targets the already uncertain traffic light coalition. This week, Merz will have several more opportunities to step up to the lectern as the leader of the opposition in the Bundestag and to attack the government bench to his right. For example, his parliamentary group has presented a draft law for a staggered vaccination requirement should the pandemic put undue strain on the health system in the fall, if more staff and better equipment are not provided.
So far, the traffic light coalition partners have not put anything that can be decided on paper. In view of the foolish days that are now beginning, the Bundestag will not meet again until mid-March, so that a law before Easter seems unlikely – and constitutionally more and more problematic, since the incidence of infection is abating and such an encroachment on fundamental rights can hardly be justified.
Accordingly, the Union also rejects an offer of talks from SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich. “The traffic light initially does not get any majorities for its own proposals and then tries to blame us,” MP Thomas Heilmann told the Handelsblatt. “We are welcome to talk about the Union’s proposal: increase the vaccination rate with the help of a vaccination register and at the same time prepare a possible vaccination requirement for the near future – if it is still necessary.”
Vaccination, Ukraine, energy prices: The Union is attacking
The Union faction is also calling on the government to finally answer the unresolved questions from the opposition’s point of view, such as how the compulsory vaccination that will apply from mid-March in nursing homes, for example, should be implemented. Prime Ministers such as Söder from Bavaria and Tobias Hans from Saarland had refused to implement the law without clear instructions. Merz had supported the position.
The Union has put the federal government’s Russia policy on the agenda for Thursday. Above all, Merz should focus on the previously hesitant Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and his party’s unclear attitude towards Russia. The Hamburg CDU boss and member of the Bundestag Christoph Ploß had already provided plenty of explosive material. He had attacked Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD) on a television talk show and accused her of saying that she was not interested in the violation of international law in Ukraine and that she wanted to see the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline in operation instead.
In the meantime, Schwesig has called on lawyers and demanded a cease-and-desist declaration from the CDU politician. Ploss appeared unimpressed. “I will not be intimidated and will continue to point out that the SPD has apparently completely lost its moral compass when it comes to Russia,” he said. The SPD foreign politician Ralf Stegner then accused Ploß of spreading “lies”. “You could hardly demonstrate the decline of the Union more emphatically,” he said.
The exchange of blows between the Union and the government will continue on Friday when the Bundestag is discussing a Union motion on energy prices and green inflation. At Merz’s request, party vice-president Andreas Jung and parliamentary group vice-president Jens Spahn, who is now responsible for the economy, developed it. In it, the Union calls for 25 measures, including, for example, the immediate abolition of the EEG surcharge, a reduction in electricity tax and the inclusion of biofuels in petrol and diesel in taxation.
“The eco-tax on eco-fuel must be abolished. The prices are exploding, everyone is affected,” Jung told the Handelsblatt and called for an “energy price brake”. It is not enough to help socially disadvantaged people with a one-off payment. It must be “acted boldly instead of half-heartedly as from the traffic light”.
The application contains a sentence that may have come from Merz’s pen, after he had already requested something similar in the Handelsblatt: The European Central Bank must “use its mandate to maintain monetary stability in the event of persistently high inflation” and take “appropriate measures”. .
More: Clear edge to the right, support for the left: How does Merz feel about the political fringes?