The political year 2021 ends with a bang. The 66-year-old Friedrich Merz, who has returned to politics, has been very clearly elected as the designated new CDU chairman in the first ballot. For legal reasons, the actual election can only take place at the party congress in January. But in view of the membership vote, that’s really only a matter of form: 62 percent of the CDU members who participated in the first such survey want Merz to be at the head of the party.
This vote is also such an enormous success for Merz because a total of almost two thirds of the CDU members actually took part in the postal and online voting. It has to be said that most of the members are male and over sixty. And that’s what the result looks like. Or the other way around: With this personnel decision, the CDU has not exactly become younger and more feminine. More difficult, however, is the fact that by choosing Merz, the base would like to dream back to the good old days. That can basically only end in one more disappointment.
For Merz, who has been fighting for the job as party leader for the third time since 2018, it is a satisfaction to have finally prevailed. The fact that he refrained from showing his satisfaction at the moment of success shows that he has learned a lot. Three years ago he had declared that he liked to work in a team – when he was the boss. This time he was more convincing as a team player. And so one of the future top jobs in the party will, so to speak, fall in the capital: The directly elected member of the Bundestag Mario Czaja from Marzahn-Hellersdorf is part of the Merz team and is to become the next general secretary. Czaja is not only a successful campaigner, but also represents the labor wing. Christina Stumpp from Baden-Württemberg is to strengthen the local political level as Deputy Secretary General.
In his third intra-party election campaign, Merz presented himself to be much more social and grassroots than before. He spoke about topics such as pensions, family friendliness, necessary immigration and demographic change, and in all discussions he was clearly more affectionate than before. The candidate of the economic wing? That used to be. The ambitious power politician? Merz preferred to talk about how to reorganize the party instead of about future candidates for chancellor.
The only question is: is the new sensitivity sustainable or was it primarily a tactic? When asked whether he wanted to replace Ralph Brinkmann as group leader, he evaded. But actually he had already answered before. According to Merz, the CDU has an important task as an opposition party. He wants to do everything he can to achieve this. It looks like Friedrich Merz is back. It remains to be seen quickly whether the party will benefit from this. Next year, three state elections are due very quickly. In March there will be new elections in Saarland, then in May in Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia. Even if the CDU chairman Friedrich Merz does not run there himself, it will be the test of how his party is received by the general population. Politically, it will remain exciting in the coming year.
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