In two years, according to the plan, the results should become part of the basic program. “It is important to have positions and goals for the topics of energy with a focus on security of energy supply, agriculture and the food industry, analogue, digital and transport infrastructure and future mobility both in urban centers and in rural areas, the social issue of building and living as well as general services of general interest for the people in Germany for the coming years”, announced the chairman Bernd Althusmann, Minister of Economic Affairs in Lower Saxony. All of this is a “central task for the program” of the party, as Althusmann told the Handelsblatt.
However, in view of the war in Ukraine, the issues could hardly be more topical, which is probably one of the reasons why the specialist group is already starting at Easter, while the others will not start their work until the end of the month. Some advise on prosperity, others on security and international affairs or humane digitization, the modern state and cohesion as well as the future of social systems.
An energy concept should be available in May
The Althusmann group has less than two years left. At the beginning of May, according to the plan, the CDU and CSU want to adopt an energy policy paper. It is “already being coordinated” and will be “adjusted to the current situation”, confirmed Althusmann.
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His deputy Gitta Connemann, as head of the Mittelstandsunion, one of many associations in the party, has already proposed a “special crisis planning law”. “We need the tools to create more security of supply as quickly as possible,” explained Connemann. Germany should quickly become independent of Russian oil and gas and therefore quickly build liquid gas terminals in ports, but also wind turbines, power grids and transport routes.
The CDU wants to reinvent itself while the old world is falling apart: war, climate crisis, digitization are just a few keywords. An opposition party must also show its stance, as quickly as possible and not just in two years.
“It’s about the strategic reassessment of the energy supply under changed framework conditions,” said Althusmann. “Some certainties have to be reconsidered.” He describes the balancing act: “We want to set the course for the next ten to 15 years today and continue to develop it further.”
When the “spiritual guidance” is taken over by others
The party has already given itself a number of basic programmes, even if they were not always called that. The most important was probably the one from 1978. After long years of government, the party said it had lost “the intellectual leadership” in the country, had been in the opposition for nine years and, like these days, had to reinvent itself in order to be able to lead again.
Most recently, during the government of Angela Merkel, the party set out on a new program. Party leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer did not manage more than a “listening tour” through the district associations. One of the ideas born at the time was general conscription after the Union had abolished conscription. There was a longing among the members for something connecting and responsible between state and citizen.
The idea is not off the table: The new state leader and parliamentary group leader of the CDU in Rhineland-Palatinate, Christian Baldauf, together with the parliamentary group leader of the Baden-Württemberg state CDU, Manuel Hagel, wrote a paper.
It is available from the Handelsblatt. It states: “The liberal democracies of the West will only survive in the growing system competition with the authoritarian systems of this world if they are not only economically strong, but also strong in their security architecture and at the same time socially resilient. If they are not only willing but able to defend their own interests.”
This not only requires money for the Bundeswehr. They call for a “social debate with all those involved on how such a duty of service can look like in concrete terms”. It should be possible “in the Bundeswehr, in blue light organizations or in the social sector”. It would be something like voluntary conscription.
General compulsory service instead of conscription is discussed
The paper will be discussed by one of the technical commissions. Two weeks ago, the chairman of the program commission, party deputy Carsten Linnemann, and his deputy duo, Serap Güler and Mario Voigt, discussed the work together with the heads of the specialist commissions. The group also spoke about “unique selling points of the CDU” and a “narrative” with which the CDU could inspire the electorate again.
There was talk of the “land of ascent” and of the “land of opportunity”, as it was called afterwards. The Union should be “unique” again, with its own demands. After two hours it was clear: there will be no specifications, no bans on thinking, and the expert commissions can also independently appoint external experts.
>> Also read here: Lessons from Ukraine: The CSU relies on energy and deterrence
And so, for example, the former Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn, as chairman of the “Prosperity” commission, will select external experts before the group will meet for the first time on April 28th. The European politician Daniel Caspary, on the other hand, as head of the “Security” Commission, does not think “of rigid membership”. He envisions “a loose, flexible, larger circle of advisors and initiators”.
Of course, party leader Friedrich Merz also has his ideas – you can read about them in a book he published last year. He is already talking about the “new social question” based on the basic program of 1978. At that time, Secretary General Heiner Geißler, who together with party leader Helmut Kohl formed the CDU into a member and program party, raised the question in view of high unemployment.
CDU leader Merz insists on the C and the U
Merz seems to want to build on all of this. Despite the dwindling number of members in clubs and parties, he is convinced “that parties need members”. The CDU should again be a “representative cross-section of society” and reflect “the entire breadth of the professional spectrum”, integrate as a people’s party, resolve conflicts, “that this results in a majority opinion of our party, which we only then put into the discussion of political competition “. This is “the actual strategic task of the U in our party name,” he said. “The People’s Party principle is not dead.”
Merz also wants to emphasize the C in the name, regardless of the crisis in the Catholic Church. He wants “to leave no doubt that we will continue to be called the Christian Democratic Union in the future. These are long cultural lines that we want to draw from the past through the present to the future.”
The party’s basic values will be presented by a separate commission – in early summer. It will be three to five pages and will be voted on at the party conference in Hanover in September. It should be quick, even when it comes to long-term sustainability.
More: In search of the opposition role: There is initial criticism of Merz in the CDU.