In the German CDU, party members must decide directly who should be the successor to party leader Armin Laschet. Journalist Claudia Cady says it’s not without risks.
SRF News: Why is the CDU taking the path of popular democracy, succeeding Laschet?
Claudia Kadi: The party leadership resisted this trend, but the party base pushed for it. At the end of the week, a party-base convention demanded that course by an overwhelming majority. Until now, the CDU has always advocated the representative democracy of committees to make such decisions. Whether the PDP will result in a sustainable personal decision in opposition is entirely open.
Is this action also an admission by the CDU leadership that the last politicization of the grassroots has passed?
Yes, you have to see it that way. In the end, a very small group of very few people chose Armin Laschet as their candidate for chancellor – and did so on dubious pretexts, without thinking about opinion polls or election chances. So CDU – along with CSU – landed on her stomach.
The party leadership cannot reject the popular demand.
Therefore, the party leadership now had no opportunity to reject the rule’s demand. She has admitted that she was wrong in her staffing decision.
The CDU party leadership maintains that the People’s Democratic decision will remain unique. Is this realistic?
According to Laschet, the party can hardly afford this approach, especially from a financial point of view. The next baseline survey will cost more than one million euros. The CDU weakened badly financially after the election defeat.
After the election defeat, the CDU became financially weak.
In addition, various elections are scheduled in the states next year, when the CDU could weaken further and financial conditions could be further strained. On the other hand, it is difficult to change the practice again if the path of popular democracy is successful – if the elected person of the party leader pushes the party forward and can score electoral successes.
The most promising candidates are Friedrich Merz and Norbert Röttgen. How is the party reorientation supposed to work with these old CDU fighters?
In fact, youth work at CDU has been severely neglected. In the federal elections, those who voted for the first time voted for either the Green Party or the Free Democratic Party, while the CDU played no role. That is why the CDU must now address young groups of voters once again. Also, after the departure of Chancellor Angela Merkel and former party leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, there are no more women in the party leadership in sight – also for the second row.
How successful is the baseline survey under these circumstances?
The opportunity lies in the fact that the winner of the vote will be elected by about 400,000 party members with a clear majority and thus enjoy significant legitimacy. But there is always the danger of a split in member surveys if two camps of roughly the same size emerge.
With member surveys, there is always the risk of splitting.
Such a split would be fatal for the German CDU. Because then the party will at first be full of party reunification. But there are several state elections in 2022, including the North Rhine-Westphalia state election in May. The new president will be confirmed in January, so he should be able to take care of this election campaign right away.
The interview was conducted by Roger Abley.
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