It should be a satisfaction: 20 years after Angela Merkel ousted him from the parliamentary group chairmanship, Friedrich Merz took over the office again. Can the 66-year-old lead the Union to its old strength?
Berlin – The Union faction in the Bundestag wants to elect CDU leader Friedrich Merz as its new chairman at 3 p.m. It is considered certain that Merz will receive a majority of the 197 MPs from the CDU and CSU.
However, it is eagerly awaited how strong the support is that the 66-year-old economic politician is receiving. Merz was already chairman of the Union faction from 2000 to 2002. He withdrew from the Bundestag in 2009 to pursue a career in business and only returned to parliament in the 2021 federal elections.
CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt wants to propose Merz as the successor to faction leader Ralph Brinkhaus (CDU). According to the CSU, this is done on behalf of and after consultation with party leader Markus Söder, who is staying in Munich for a major corona debate. “I’m not the leader of the opposition, that will be Friedrich Merz,” Söder recently told the Düsseldorf “Rheinische Post”. According to the working rules of the parliamentary group, the CSU leader is entitled to give advice on the parliamentary group executive committee.
Merz future leader of the opposition
With his election as head of the CDU/CSU deputies, Merz becomes opposition leader in the Bundestag. This is not an official post, but an informal function. For the Sauerland, however, it was important to hold the leadership of the parliamentary group in addition to the office of CDU chairman in the opposition. Because in the opposition there are only a few high-profile posts for a party. His future appearances in the Bundestag should ensure Merz significantly more media presence than if he were only CDU chairman.
Merz ousted Brinkhaus
Actually, the previous group leader Brinkhaus could well imagine staying in office. He was originally elected until the end of April. However, after his election as CDU chairman, Merz decided to take the chair of the parliamentary group himself and pushed Brinkhaus out of office. This probably happened against the background of the great approval of the 1001 delegates at the election party congress. That’s how it was done 20 years ago – in 2002 – by the then CDU leader Angela Merkel with Merz himself, who was the leader of the parliamentary group at the time – to his great annoyance. In 2005, Merkel was elected chancellor.
Merz has stated that Brinkhaus will remain an active and important member of the parliamentary group. He would like to take advantage of Brinkhaus’ skills and support.
The 53-year-old Brinkhaus had waived his candidacy again in a letter to the deputies at the end of January. In doing so, he avoided another power struggle before the state elections in Saarland, Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia in March and May, which are important for the CDU. The CDU heads of government of the three federal states are fighting for re-election. In the Union, it was feared that new internal disputes would have deterred supporters of the Christian Democrats, especially after the power struggles of the past few years – for example over the CDU presidency and the chancellor candidacy.
Great support for Merz at the election party conference
Merz received 95.33 percent of the votes in the postal vote at the end of January, which was necessary for legal reasons after an online election party conference. At the online meeting on January 22, he came to 94.62 percent according to the CDU bill. The CDU had re-elected its entire leadership. She drew the conclusion from the worst Union result of 24.1 percent in the federal elections last September. In December, in the first member survey of the CDU for the party chairmanship, Merz was chosen with 62.1 percent as the successor to Armin Laschet, who had failed as a candidate for chancellor. dpa
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