Quota for women, social year, energy crisis: Merz has to face some fundamental debates at his first party conference as elected CDU leader. But if he wants to attract new voters, he will have to disappoint his conservative following.
What does the "C" stand for in the CDU? This is not a trick question, but stands for a fundamental debate with which the Christian Democrats are currently grappling. The Union must "rediscover itself," says CDU General Secretary Mario Czaja just a few days before the party conference in Hanover. A new state parliament will be elected in the Lower Saxony state capital at the beginning of October, which is why the CDU chose the location for support.
But the chances are slim. Not only because the SPD is ahead in polls in the federal state, but also because the party is facing a mountain of its own problems: the Union has overslept its modernization and the new party leader Friedrich Merz has to fix it. Of all things.
"Strong leadership and a clear course," promised Merz when he was elected at the beginning of the year. It looked promising: on the third try, he got a great election result of 95 percent, because even the old Merkel camp had his back. But instead, the weakness of the party is now coming to light, which has been simmering under the surface for quite some time: after the last federal election, the CDU is in a crisis of identification.
According to Forsa polls over the past two weeks, the CDU is currently the strongest party in Germany. With 26 percent, it is seven percentage points ahead of the SPD and two points ahead of the Greens. The party is anything but satisfied with that. Instead of marching in the direction of 30 percent, it should go to 35, CDU Vice Carsten Linnemann was annoyed. Since the election debacle about a year ago, the party has not been able to recapture the large "bourgeois center" that the party would like to claim again.
Criticism of Merz also comes from within its own ranks. The Junge Union, in which the most loyal Merz fans were already before his election, are calling for a renewal of the party. "The fact that it doesn't matter today where you were born, where you come from, what you believe or who you love - that's something for the CDU that needs to be recognized," said its chairman Tilman Kuban of the editorial network Germany. The party must become more open. Secretary General Czaja also admits that the "C" of the CDU must be renegotiated.
Many topics are up for discussion: dealing with euthanasia, artificial intelligence in the workplace, parental leave for MPs. In short: your own basic values. More than 480 applications were submitted. The much-discussed quota for women and the mandatory social year after school have recently made headlines. Merz stands for both - and thus heats up the minds of the conservatives and the Junge Union alike.
The controversial women's quota divides the party in two: on the one hand the supporters, who recognize that a women's share of 36.1 percent in the CDU is no reason to celebrate. Merz is also one of them. On the other hand, those who emphasize that one has to deal with more important things than "any quota". This also includes Linnemann, who is "annoyed" by the fact that so much importance is attached to an issue that voters don't care about at all. Merz tries to appease when he says it's "basically not a real quota". The result, no matter in which direction it goes, should be very close. If the quota falls through, it would be a real defeat for Merz.
According to Czaja, not only internal problems, but also the energy crisis, in which Germany is up to its neck, should play a role at the party congress. The Union criticizes the course of the traffic light government, describes the relief package as insufficient and is working primarily on Economics Minister Robert Habeck from the Greens and his plan to stop the three remaining nuclear power plants in Germany.
In the general debate in the Bundestag this week, the aggressive Merz was offered a stand-up by an even more aggressive and suddenly not so calm Chancellor. "You're not talking about the topic and the problems of this country, that's really the big problem," Scholz rumbled. If the Union hadn't delayed the expansion of renewable energies in 16 years of governance instead of making Germany dependent on Russian energy, the situation would be different now, said the Chancellor. "A party that fights almost every wind turbine personally has nothing to do with the question 'how do we solve the energy problems of the future'."
It is no secret that the Union has so far not focused on climate protection. That too is about to change. The topic is now at the top of the "modernization agenda".
