When CDU leader Merz took office, Ziemiak's time as general secretary of the federal party ended. Until then, the 37-year-old was involved in a prominent position in the reorganization of the party after Angela Merkel. Now Prime Minister Wüst is bringing him to North Rhine-Westphalia.
Paul Ziemiak becomes the new Secretary General of the CDU in North Rhine-Westphalia. At a meeting in Düsseldorf, the state board supported a corresponding proposal by state chairman and prime minister Hendrik Wüst. The former general secretary of the federal CDU should therefore immediately take up his new work as general secretary on an interim basis. For the official appointment, however, a party congress resolution is still required. Such a one will not take place until next year.
The 37-year-old Ziemiak was the national chairman of the Junge Union from 2014 to 2019. He has been a member of the Bundestag since 2017. Two attempts to complete a degree failed. In 2018, after her election at the party conference in Hamburg, then party leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer proposed him as the new general secretary. The step was seen as an attempt by the new chairmen to integrate the camps of their losing competitors, Friedrich Merz and Jens Spahn, whose supporters and sympathizers were Ziemiak. He also retained this post under the next party leader, Armin Laschet. His successor Merz, in turn, then suggested Mario Czaja for the post, which he took up in January 2022.
Ziemiak is building a reputation as a crisis manager. At that time, the CDU tried to reorganize after the departure of long-term Chancellor Angela Merkel. During this time, among other things, there was the election scandal in Thuringia, when the CDU, together with the AfD and FDP, elected the liberal Thomas L. Kemmerich as Prime Minister, which also led to the resignation of AKK.
In addition, Ziemiak steered the party organizationally through large parts of the corona pandemic and expanded the digital participation of the members. Ziemiak gained special recognition with the organization of the first purely digital party conference of the CDU in January 2021. The development of a new basic program was not completed during his term of office.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, he is now succeeding Josef Hovenjürgen, who resigned from office after being appointed Parliamentary State Secretary in June.
