Comment: Friedrich Merz only has two bad options

Today the moment of truth strikes at the CDU party headquarters in Berlin. At the crisis meeting of the party leadership, the prime ministers in particular are urging the chancellor to change course. For Friedrich Merz, this must seem paradoxical.

Not even four weeks ago, the heads of government secured his job. The CDU chairman was badly injured after the state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt and Berlin. Prime Ministers Markus Söder and Hendrik Wüst would only have had to raise their hands after the disastrous results for the CDU; Merz would have gone down in the history of the Federal Republic as Chancellor with the shortest term in office.

But the CDU state leaders wrote a press release in which they pledged their support to Merz and supported him instead of overthrowing him. Even experienced political observers did not expect that the bill for keeping the job would come so quickly. After just four weeks, the Chancellor is in danger of being crushed by the same Prime Ministers.

It seems as if they want to take command of the question of how the CDU and the government find their way out of the crisis. The party must decide whether it will stick with the Chancellor's strict reform course, for example in pensions, care and health. Or should the “reality of people’s lives” be addressed more in the future, as the prime ministers emphasize? The reality of life should be the code word here for putting the brakes on reform.