The chairman of the Junge Union and new deputy leader of the Union parliamentary group, Johannes Winkel (CDU), wants to pay migrants less social benefits. In Paul Ronzheimer's “Ronzheimer” podcast, Winkel calls for massive reform of the welfare state. When it comes to the amount of social benefits, the decisive factor should be whether someone has already paid into the system or not. Migrants would be particularly affected. “Is it actually okay for two people to receive the same amount of social benefits and one has never paid anything in before?” asks Winkel.
His demand: “Those who didn’t pay in before should get less.” The Junge Union leader makes it clear that he is not concerned with nationality, but that his demand would disproportionately affect migrants. "At a time when mass migration to Germany was allowed (...) when very, very many people ended up in the German social system, it of course makes a quantitative difference. That is of course undoubtedly correct." This has developed into a central justice problem.
Another CDU local association from Brandenburg has written an incendiary letter to party leader and Chancellor Friedrich Merz: The CDU Mühlenbecker Land sees their appeal as a wake-up call. “Now is the time for consequences,” says the statement from CDU chairwoman Mühlenbecker Land, Katja Behrendt-Didszun, and eight other members. “We expect that errors will be identified, political decisions will be reviewed and concrete changes will be made instead of further announcements.”
In the dispute over the planned care reform, Carsten Linnemann rejected the SPD's demand for a “care cap”. “We would not solve the problem,” says the Federal Health Minister, referring to the planned savings in the ARD “Report from Berlin”. Linnemann calculates that the savings with the limit on pure care costs proposed by the SPD would only be around 300 euros, with a total personal contribution of up to an average of 4,000 euros per person affected and in a home.
The youth organization of the Berlin party Die Linke verbally attacked the police in connection with a demonstration and described them as a “criminal clan”. During the demonstration by students and other participants against conscription on Friday, “a criminal clan equipped with pistols, quartz gloves, batons and pepper spray” harassed the demonstrators, meaning “the Berlin police,” according to an Instagram post by Linksjugend Solid Berlin.
The young people would vote for a change in policy, against “continuing the rearmament and police violence with the SPD and the Greens,” it said on the Internet portal X. The Berlin Left wants to talk to the Greens and SPD about forming a government coalition.
Federal Health Minister Carsten Linnemann (CDU) calms down the dispute with the SPD over the planned care reform. “This is nothing unusual,” says Linnemann in the ARD “Report from Berlin”. When it came to the reform of statutory health insurance, “it was only familiarized and agreed upon two hours before the cabinet discussed it”. But the minister goes on to say about the dispute within the coalition: “Something like that should be done behind closed doors and not in front of the door.”
The Green Party leaders Franziska Brantner and Felix Banaszak want to remain at the top of the party. Separately, but at the same time, both announced that they would be running for a second term at the party conference at the beginning of December.
Banaszak said in a message to the party base that he was running again “to work with all of you to prepare our party for the next federal election.” Brantner wrote that she and Banaszak are running for co-chair again. “Together we can be the party that people trust to move this country forward.”
The chairman of the Junge Union, Johannes Winkel, warns the CDU of its downfall. “If it doesn’t change fundamentally, there will be no reason to vote for the CDU,” said the newly elected CDU parliamentary group deputy in an interview with “Bild”. "Parties that don't change die. Quite simply."
The 34-year-old attested that the CDU and SPD have a “weird self-image” that can only be explained by the fact that the parties have taken turns in the Chancellery for 80 years. But: "There is no eternal guarantee for the popular parties CDU and SPD in the Basic Law. Even if there have been many crises over the last 80 years," said the chairman of the CDU's young generation.
After the recent election defeats, the workers' wing of the CDU is calling for a broader reorganization of the party. “We no longer live up to our claim of being a people’s party,” ZDFheute.de quoted from a four-page policy paper from the Christian Democratic Workers’ Association (CDA). "Too many social groups hardly exist in the Union anymore; too many people no longer see it as their political home. A people's party that only speaks to itself ceases to be a people's party."
It is not enough to just invoke the breadth of society. “It must be recognizable in the party, in its debates and in its parliaments.” People from different professions, regions and walks of life must be “visibly involved in decisions again”.
In an interview with ZDFheute.de, CDA federal chairman Dennis Radtke criticized party chairman Friedrich Merz: He had not been able to sufficiently involve people. You can't ignore the fact that "the rhetoric 'people celebrate too much when they're sick, too little willingness to perform' - that of course triggers people more than it picks them up."
According to a survey, the Union parties have fallen to 19 percent nationwide, reaching their lowest value recorded in this legislative period. In the current Sunday trend from the Insa Institute for “Bild am Sonntag”, the CDU/CSU lose one percentage point. The AfD remains unchanged at 29 percent.
The SPD gained one percentage point and reached 14 percent. The Greens have gained the most: they gained one percentage point and are now at 15 percent. The last time the value was this high was on September 16, 2023.
The Left loses one point and gets ten percent. The FDP also falls by one point to four percent, the BSW remains at three percent.
Almost a week after the House of Representatives election in Berlin, the SPD state executive committee voted for exploratory talks with the Left. The board decided today unanimously to accept the Left Party's invitation to explore, a spokesman said.
