At the weekend he surprised all of Germany with his announcement of his retirement from politics: Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (63, CDU) wants to clear the way for a generation change after his party’s electoral defeat – and use the time to read books at home. Or write your own memoirs at some point!
No more committee meetings, press conferences and late night meetings.
In the BILD talk “The Right Questions”, Altmaier spoke in detail for the first time about his decision not to accept his mandate. He confessed that he only finally liked her this week. And: “I was surprised what a liberating effect this step had on me!”
Altmaier said in a talk with Kai Weise that he had agreed with the CDU Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (59), who was also resigning from all offices: “We wanted to show personally: The CDU can renew itself, it has to renew itself . And after such an election defeat, the generation change is due! “
As a broadside in the direction of colleagues, some of whom are much older, who have not drawn any such conclusions so far, Altmaier did not want this to be understood. Everyone has to “decide for themselves when it’s time to quit”.
BUT: When a BILD viewer asked why the 79-year-old CDU Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble, who behind the scenes against Altmaier’s recommendation, pushed through the later election loser Armin Laschet as Chancellor candidate, Altmaier replied tellingly: “Wolfgang Schäuble was directly elected in his constituency. Nevertheless, everyone must of course ask themselves whether they can make a contribution to the success of the renewal of the CDU. ”Even more: he“ understands the discussion as to why others do not resign ”.
The fact is: With his consistent decision, Altmaier indirectly puts EVERY high-ranking party friend under pressure who simply wants to continue as before after the election failure. In the new CDU / CSU parliamentary group, younger MPs are almost nil …
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