The past month has not been easy for the CDU - to say the least. Three state elections, three defeats. What followed: doubts about the Chancellor, doubts about the existence of the government coalition and, above all, doubts about the party's course. Starting tomorrow, the CDU presidium wants to discuss the question at a meeting in Berlin for two days: What now?
One thing was clear to the General Secretary of the CDU, Franziska Hoppermann, even before the deliberations began: the "silver bullet" - the miracle weapon that "magically disappears all problems overnight" - would not bring about the exam. The goal must be a “decisive start” to a profound, long-term process, she told the Augsburger Allgemeine. The party must show that it has understood the signal from the recent election results.
Thorsten Frei, chairman of the Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag, also admitted in the ARD morning magazine that this will by no means be easy. “The general conditions” for the CDU “are more difficult than ever”, “the challenges are greater than they have been for a long time”.
Bad election results, bad poll numbers
To express the challenges in numbers: In the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt, the CDU, once the strongest force, slipped by 19.9 percent to just 17.2 percent. Two weeks later, it was only enough for second place in Berlin with 18.8 percent, and in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania the CDU was even thrown out of the state parliament.
Of course that has something to do with the party. The falling poll numbers, the weak performance in the state elections - that leads "to people looking at things a little more nervously." Nevertheless, the CDU should not be deterred by this, warned Frei. The party has its course “and we have to follow it consistently.”
But what does the course look like that is supposed to bring the CDU back up? To answer this question, the CDU must return to what it was elected for in the federal election, Thuringia's Prime Minister Mario Voigt told the dpa news agency. One of the Christian Democrats' strengths has always been their ability to address people's everyday problems. Heating, refueling, shopping - everything has become too expensive. “We have to talk about how people can make life affordable again,” said the CDU state leader.
Secretary General Hoppermann also wants to give more impetus to the situation of the population. "We can only create justice and acceptance if we succeed in both: courageous, long-term changes for the future and noticeable, short-term improvements in everyday life."
Black and red argue over their own reform course
Achieving necessary changes is also a goal often mentioned by Chancellor Friedrich Merz. By means of the reforms that have already been initiated or are still planned by the black-red coalition.
But this reform course is now also controversial among the coalition partners themselves. The SPD Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Manuela Schwesig, criticized the reforms as unfair. And Berlin's CDU state leader Stefan Evers also emphasized to the news portal t-online that his party must succeed in ensuring that the reforms trigger "more confidence than fear of change".
Just a few days ago, Evers had clearly criticized the Chancellor and clearly blamed him for the election defeats. Merz lacks empathy and approachability, and his abandonment of election promises such as sticking to the debt brake leaves behind disappointed hopes and expectations.
Radtke warns of the collapse of the coalition
It is precisely such quarrels within the coalition that the head of the CDU social wing, Dennis Radtke, shows little understanding for. Because no one - apart from the AfD - could seriously wish for the government alliance to break up. “This igniting, this flirting with a minority government leaves me stunned,” criticized Radtke in the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. The coalition must be able to act - "and I don't want to give up belief in it." But some still didn't understand what the hour had come.
“The political center is doing everything it can to accelerate its own erosion,” Radtke warned. This was shown by the latest political developments beyond the state elections. In Saxony-Anhalt, some people are thinking loudly about leaving the CDU parliamentary group to do something with the AfD. And in Berlin "the SPD and the Greens want to get into political bed with left-wing extremists, anti-Semites and clan sympathizers."
In Saxony-Anhalt, AfD politician Tobias Rausch was elected state parliament president in a secret vote on Tuesday, with four votes in excess of the existing mandates of the AfD and BSW in parliament. It is now suspected that these votes came from the ranks of the CDU.
CSU politician Weber calls for weakening the “firewall”
But not everyone within the Union sees a rapprochement with the AfD as an absolute breach of a taboo. According to CSU member Manfred Weber, it is time to soften the political demarcation with the AfD. "The "firewall" in the sense of 'them or us' must be history," demanded the group leader of the European People's Party in the European Parliament in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. In the EU Parliament, the EPP group has already voted with parties from the right-wing spectrum, for example to enforce stricter asylum regulations.
In Germany, the concept of the firewall is a "huge burden for the Union if we constantly vote with left-wing parties in the state parliaments where we have minority governments - in Thuringia and Saxony - and thus make even more left-wing politics," said Weber. Conversely, the AfD puts the CDU's content up for vote point by point in parliament, but the CDU is forced to vote against it because of the "firewall".
