D.he former Union parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz is to become the new party chairman according to the will of the CDU members. General Secretary Paul Ziemiak announced on Friday in Berlin that Merz had received the necessary absolute majority of 62.1 percent in the member survey. The foreign politician Norbert Röttgen received 25.8 percent of the vote, the former head of the Chancellery Helge Braun 12.1 percent. Participation in the first member survey in the history of the CDU was 66.02 percent.
The 400,000 or so party members were able to make a preliminary decision on the chairmanship for the first time in the history of the CDU. Officially, the new party leader of the 1001 delegates has to attend a digital party congress on 21./22. January to be elected. It is considered certain that the delegates will stick to the vote of the members. This must then be confirmed by postal vote.
“Ralph Brinkhaus and I get along well”
The election of the new party leadership is the consequence of the disaster of the Union in the federal election on September 26th. The CDU and CSU had their historically worst result of 24.1 percent and had to step into the opposition. The CDU leader Armin Laschet, who had failed as a candidate for chancellor, then announced his retirement. He is now a simple member of the Bundestag and a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Röttgen and Merz had already run for chairmanship at the beginning of the year – and then lost to Laschet at a party congress. For Merz it is even the third attempt for the party chairmanship. After then Chancellor Angela Merkel withdrew from the CDU chairmanship in December 2018, he lost to Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.
Friedrich Merz now has to get the party back on track. In addition, he has to decide whether he wants to take over the chairmanship of the parliamentary group in order to unite the leadership of the opposition in one person. The previous Union parliamentary group leader Ralph Brinkhaus (CDU) would like to exercise his office beyond April – until then he will be elected for the time being. Röttgen and Braun had made it clear that they would not aspire to the group chairmanship.
Merz had recently told the Funke media group: “That the chairmanship of the CDU and the leadership of the Union parliamentary group should be in one hand is a principle that applies.” When asked whether Brinkhaus could look for a new task when he became party leader Merz added: “I’m really not thinking about this topic at the moment. This question is currently not on the agenda. “At the same time he emphasized:” Ralph Brinkhaus and I get along well. “
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