The remaining power in the Federal Council is melting away

Berlin Since Sunday evening, the CDU has been repeating the message it has been preparing for days: “We have given strong support. It was local issues that played a role in this election campaign,” said CDU General Secretary Mario Czaja on Monday to everyone who wanted to know.

But one thing has long been clear: the Saar disaster is anything but convenient for the CDU with its new chairman Friedrich Merz since the end of January.

It is not primarily about the question of why the Saar-CDU was not able to take away people’s fears of structural change in the steel and automotive industries with clever industrial policy. For the federal CDU, the only question is how far down the opposition bench the party will slip and whether it will end up in insignificance.

The system of “checks and balances” in German federalism ensures that the SPD can govern with the Greens and FDP in the federal government, but needs the go-ahead in the Bundesrat on central issues – and thus not only in their own ranks, but also from the CDU.

Top jobs of the day

Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.

Opposition leader Friedrich Merz has long been playing the card, for example when it comes to the question of whether there should be a special fund for the Bundeswehr. And he wants to continue to play them off in order to position himself loudly in debates.

Who would still listen to a CDU that can no longer veto in the Bundesrat and would therefore no longer be a serious negotiating partner?

Lost three valuable votes in the Bundesrat

With the Saar election, it is only 26 to 30. That’s how many votes CDU-led state governments have compared to SPD governments. The CDU can still rely on six votes from the CSU in Bavaria and governs at least three countries as a junior partner, which means that it has a say in 16 more votes. But she lost three valuable votes in the Saar elections – and given the SPD’s absolute majority, the mood in her own ranks was anything but good.

The calculation and the motivation are central in the CDU in these weeks and months. In only five federal states, the party provides the prime minister, in Kiel and Düsseldorf the state chancellery could be lost with the elections in May. It’s about another ten votes in the Bundesrat.

In Hesse, as in Saarland and soon also in North Rhine-Westphalia, a prime minister will have to stand for election in the coming year who will take office in the current election period and therefore cannot advertise himself and the CDU with a bonus. If the country were also lost and five votes with it: the CDU under Friedrich Merz would be too – faster than it had time to renew itself.

More: In search of the opposition role: There is initial criticism of Merz in the CDU.

source site-16