With these topics, the party wants to score points with the citizen

Twelve years in the grand coalition have left their mark – the clearest bears three letters: AfD. “All parties must clearly state what they stand for,” says the chairman of the program commission, party vice Carsten Linnemann. “This is the only way we are pushing back the extreme fringes.” The co-chairman Mario Voigt, Thuringia’s state and parliamentary group leader, puts it this way: “As a union, we can only achieve 30 percent in the federal government if we consistently fight the AfD in the east.”

Prosperity is shrinking, the AfD is growing

In Erfurt, Schwerin and Potsdam there have long been more AfD than CDU MPs in the state parliaments. In Thuringia, the AfD is now the strongest force in the polls, as well as in Saxony and Brandenburg. The protests by the CDU are also robbing important votes in the west, as was the case recently in Lower Saxony.

Clear language is one thing, content is another. “We want to give the CDU a clear line,” says Linnemann as a goal. Jens Spahn, head of the prosperity commission, says: “The promise of prosperity is under pressure.” His group wants to “show ways how we can remain a successful industrial country”. After the “blossoming landscapes” under Helmut Kohl, the CDU wants to create “prosperity for all” again, as in the days of Ludwig Erhard.

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In East Germany, what Mario Voigt laments is that what has been saved in a good 30 years in life as a whole is melting like ice in the sun in the face of the energy crisis and inflation. “Something like this drives the protest voters into the arms of the right-wing extremists.” There are also uncertainties: the lignite mining ends.

Because of the Ukraine war, Germany no longer wants to obtain Russian oil via the Druzhba pipeline by the end of the year. So far, however, the federal government has only been able to replace half of the requirement. The refinery PCK in Schwedt will be able to produce “only at minimum load”, as the government admits. Jobs are in danger, oil prices in East Germany are likely to rise.

A credible promise of advancement could give confidence. It is important “to distribute prosperity fairly and to provide security in the change”, says Spahn. The party is talking about a negative income tax that would mean that nobody would have to ask for social benefits. If the income is not enough, then there would be a credit from the tax office. It could become part of a new concept of prosperity.

New trust in the state

In addition, the CDU wants to restore trust in the state. A working group has christened the party “Modern State”, “Functioning State” would be preferable to co-chairman Philipp Amthor. The right-wing politician represents his hometown of Greifswald in the Bundestag. “Many row in the state, too few steer,” he says, calling for less mixed administration and more transparency. People should know who is responsible for what in the federal system. He would also like to revise the legislative processes so that everyone understands them and does not have to puzzle over what is happening behind closed committee doors.

“We must not ignore the AfD and its issues,” says Amthor and also urges clear language. He wears the German colors in his lapel and has a German flag in his office. In East Germany it was well received that party leader Friedrich Merz recently warned against “social tourism” by Ukrainian refugees. The jubilation quickly faded, however, when he again distanced himself from his statement because of public pressure.

The line between factual criticism and populism as an opposition party is thin. The governing CDU in Saxony-Anhalt will soon put the issue of immigration on the agenda in the state parliament and will clearly stand up for controlled and against illegal immigration. She doesn’t want to be speechless just because the AfD argues similarly. “Definite without excluding” is the motto there.

The former party and faction leader Mike Mohring is also promoting this in Thuringia. However, he triggered a debate because he no longer wants to consistently reject AfD representatives in office elections – for example for the parliamentary presidency. “It may hurt, but our democracy can take it,” he says.

Reform plan for public service broadcasting

There is no doubt in the CDU that it will no longer vote together with the AfD, either at federal or state level. But the goal remains to win back voters lost to the AfD. That is why the CDU is also tackling an issue on which it has not yet clearly positioned itself: the reform of public broadcasting.

The AfD would like to abolish it immediately. The CDU federal board has now set up a commission. It is headed by none other than Reiner Haseloff, Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt. The state CDU wanted to reject the nationwide planned increase in contributions last year in the state parliament. But because the AfD wanted to help the Union gain a majority, Haseloff prevented the vote. He now wants to hold a “debate on the future” in the commission.

“The debate about public service broadcasting is one of the topics with which we can win back AfD voters,” says Mohring from Thuringia. He is a member of the commission. Compulsory contributions meant that broadcasting had a duty to justify itself. “We want a factual debate instead of populism.”

“In the end, there must be a much leaner public service broadcaster with stronger content that meets with broad acceptance because it offers what no one else offers in this quality,” says Gitta Connemann, head of the Mittelstandsunion, also a member of the commission. Without reform, “radical forces that want to abolish public service broadcasting altogether” would gain momentum.

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