The decision on the Union’s K question is imminent. There is no way around opposition leader Merz. A commentary by Georg Anastasiadis.
Next Sunday, the night and day will be exactly the same length. Then late summer will end – and with it the time by which the CDU and CSU wanted to clarify the K question. Unfortunately, the CDU is expecting an election setback in Brandenburg on this very Sunday, where the conservative Social Democrat and incumbent Dietmar Woidke is supposed to defend the bastion of the establishment against the AfD.
So once again there is no tailwind for Friedrich Merz, who can hardly wait to finally declare his candidacy for chancellor. And to make matters worse, his rival, the “candidate for chancellor of the hearts” Markus Söder, has now also started a diet; which voter would want to resist him now?
Merz does it: Why Friedrich Merz is the right person for the Union’s candidacy for chancellor
Joking aside, Merz is doing it, and it won’t be many days before this unchangeable fact is announced. The time for the decision is ripe, and voters would rightly see further delays as silly in serious times. The 68-year-old has earned it; with courage and skill he has brought the demoralized post-Merkel CDU back up to an impressive 33 percent and worked his way up to fourth place among the most popular politicians, despite his personality, which some find unappealing.
But this is not about a parade of the most popular. Germany needs a reformer. Someone who knows business, someone who is not afraid to take a clear stance on limiting migration, who is unwieldy and uncomfortable where necessary and, unlike some party friends, has never followed a woke zeitgeist. You may find all of this old-fashioned. But with Merz, voters know where they stand. What impresses about him is not least the steadfastness with which he pursues his goal: in 2002, the future Chancellor Angela Merkel dismissed him as parliamentary group leader, in 2018 he lost to Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer in the struggle for the party chairmanship and two years later to Armin Laschet. But Merz came back each time, driven by an inextinguishable passion for politics.
But Markus Söder can also be happy about the future of the Union
Markus Söder does not have to be unhappy about this. He has achieved maximum national political attention and relevance for himself and his CSU. His job description as CSU chairman includes the willingness to back down when things get tough between the big CDU and the CSU. That is the price for the many billions that the independent CSU has extracted from the federal government for Bavaria over the decades. The former CDU Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, Ernst Albrecht, once complained that there were “two parties and one federal state” sitting at the coalition table.
The Bavarians Ludwig Erhard and Roman Herzog could only become chancellor and federal president respectively because they had a CDU party membership card. Söder could, if he wants, be the first to move into Bellevue Palace as a CSU man. But as Bavaria’s Prime Minister and CSU leader, he can play an even greater role in steering Germany’s destiny when the Union takes over government responsibility again in autumn 2025 at the latest. (George Anastasiadis)
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