Will she be the successor to Carsten Linnemann?
(Photo: Photothek / Getty Images)
Berlin If the medium-sized and economic union of the CDU (MIT) appoints a new federal chairman this Saturday, there could be a big loser who is not running: Hendrik Wüst.
The 46-year-old is currently not only in the limelight as chairman of the Prime Minister’s Conference. As Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia and CDU regional head – Wüst succeeded Armin Laschet at the end of October – he is still chairman of NRW-MIT and is looking for platforms to recommend himself for the state elections.
Wüst is fighting for his candidate for the grand plan of being elected Prime Minister in May 2022: Thomas Jarzombek, Düsseldorf member of the Bundestag and aerospace coordinator in the old federal government. Wüst has been making calls across the country for days, it is rumored in the Union.
His message is addressed to everyone who supports the other candidate: Do not vote for Gitta Connemann, the deputy chairman of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group from Lower Saxony and chairman of the MIT agricultural commission.
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The chairman Linnemann wants to support Friedrich Merz in the future
The delegates have to digitally elect a successor for the outgoing chairman, Carsten Linnemann. The member of the Bundestag from North Rhine-Westphalia should be the central support for Friedrich Merz, should this become party chairman. He is then intended to be the CDU vice-president and head of the fundamental values and program committee. This task is likely to occupy him to the full, which is why he is also renouncing the post of deputy group chairman.
An amicable succession plan should be found, not a battle vote like in the dispute over the federal chairmanship. First of all, Jana Schimke from Brandenburg was interviewed. But she waived in favor of Connemann, as did Michael Littig, MIT treasurer. It was necessary to demonstrate unity.
The NRW Prime Minister wants to push through his candidate for the chairmanship of the Economic Union.
(Photo: dpa)
With Jarzombek’s candidacy, the election campaign is raging behind the scenes – and the anger over the manner is boiling up. In a letter to the delegates of the Bavarian SME Union, their chairman, Franz Josef Pschierer, criticized what he saw as unfair competition. “The state association of North Rhine-Westphalia is exerting massive pressure in favor of its candidate Jarzombek,” criticized Pschierer, once the state’s minister of economics.
He and others have been called several times. “We know from other regional associations that MPs have been put on the track who have nothing to do with MIT or who have decidedly different positions,” Pschierer continued. “The whole thing gives the impression of an attempted hostile takeover.”
There is fear of a dispute about direction
The 48-year-old Jarzombek, digital expert of the party, is considered left-liberal, the 57-year-old Connemann as economically conservative. One stands for the model of focusing MIT again on pure SME issues with a moderate tone, the other for Linnemann’s socio-political course with pointed statements.
Large regional associations such as Hesse, Lower Saxony and parts of Baden-Württemberg and even North Rhine-Westphalia are in favor of Connemann; the Bavarians anyway. Country chief Pschierer rejects MIT focusing on economic issues or even shrinking “into a kind of digital working group of the CDU”.
MIT should also continue to express itself on socio-political issues such as migration. It is always about the economic and political prerequisites of the company “and the socio-political dimensions of decisions. That can’t be separated at all. “
Accordingly, the election on Saturday is a directional decision: “Gitta Connemann would continue on the previous course. Thomas Jarzombek and the NRW CDU want a different MIT, ”warned Pschierer.
There are also voices like this in NRW-MIT: “The middle class that is lived in practice is in the middle of society,” says a senior member. Connemann stands for the breadth of the topics.
In the state association of North Rhine-Westphalia, Wüst wants to hand over the chairmanship of MIT in the coming year – at a face-to-face event with a stage. He has already chosen his successor: Angela Erwin, member of the state parliament.
On Saturday, however, they expect a “head-to-head race” digitally at the federal MIT.
More: The Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag is repositioning itself.