Merz remains in office after election defeats - focus on realignment

Merz remains chancellor and party leader after the bitter election defeats. For now, some say. Now the Union is initially concerned with something other than personnel issues.

The Chancellor has made it clear that he wants to remain CDU leader and Chancellor.

Berlin. After the CDU's series of defeats in three state elections, the personnel debate about the political future of Chancellor Friedrich Merz is slowly subsiding. Now the first thing in the Union is to decide how the reform course should be continued. More reforms? A softening of the course? Words like “general inventory” of government policy and “reset” are used.

In the afternoon, the Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag wanted to deal with the consequences of the disastrous election results. The new parliamentary group manager Catarina dos Santos-Wintz made it clear before the meeting that the MPs were behind Merz. “The Chancellor has the full backing of the Union faction,” said the First Parliamentary Managing Director.

CSU regional group leader Alexander Hoffmann was not quite as clear. On the question of support for Merz, he said that the CSU was not leading the personnel debate about the Chancellor's political future. He emphasized that it now has to be about the content. "We have set out to make this country better. And we will continue to do so."

Wüst also rejects personnel debates

Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer demanded a ruthless analysis and a fresh start from his party. “It also has something to do with people,” said the CDU politician on MDR.

North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst, seen as a potential successor to Merz in the Chancellery, rejected further personnel debates. That wouldn't be productive, he said at the “Ständehaus meeting” of the “Rheinische Post”.

Merz had already come under massive pressure within his own party after the election debacle in Saxony-Anhalt two weeks ago. Last Sunday, the CDU was thrown out of the state parliament in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and was pushed out of first place in parliament in Berlin by the Left.

Merz: No more personnel debates in party committees

However, the eight CDU prime ministers had already given Merz their support before the two new defeats. According to the Chancellor, the personnel issue was no longer an issue at the meetings of the party's top committees on Sunday and Monday. No one asked “any personnel questions,” let alone had a personnel debate, he said at a press conference.

Merz made it clear immediately after the polls closed that he wanted to remain CDU leader and “above all” chancellor and continue his reform course. How exactly this reform course should be designed is still unclear.

Thuringia's Prime Minister and CDU state leader Mario Voigt called the election fiasco a historic turning point. There can be no such thing as a “general inventory of Berlin government policy,” he said on the sidelines of a meeting of the CSU state parliamentary group in Banz Monastery. The fact that the CDU would be kicked out of a state parliament, as it is now in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, “is actually unimaginable.” “Normal people” should be able to afford normal life again. Fueling, heating, rent, living and shopping are too expensive.

Merkel is reminiscent of Adenauer

Former CDU leader and Chancellor Angela Merkel also commented on the election debacle. “On a day like today and after an evening like yesterday, it might be worth thinking again: What can we adopt from Konrad Adenauer?” she said on Monday evening at the opening of an art exhibition in the Bundestag.

The first chancellor of the Federal Republic has learned from the mistakes of history that it is important to “invite people, to address everyone, that it is important to be aware of your own values.” He found bridges necessary between employers and employees, men and women, the environment and the economy, city and country, between denominations and generations. “Today I would add: between people with and without a migration history.”

Only one in three still classifies the CDU as a people's party

Only one in three people in this country still classifies the CDU as a people's party, as shown by a YouGov survey after the state elections. In contrast, 46 percent say that the Christian Democrats are no longer this way. Around 21 percent of the 1,341 respondents answered “don’t know” or didn’t provide any information. On election Sunday, in which the CDU suffered historic losses, AfD leader Alice Weidel stated that her party was becoming increasingly anchored in society and had displaced the CDU as the people's party.