German CDU to break with Merkel era on party congress

The German conservative CDU will come together for a three-day party congress on Monday to lay the foundation for their new policy positions in a post-Merkel era and kick off their European election campaign.

On Monday, the CDU, currently leading in the polls with around 30%, will vote for a new leader and likely consolidate the position of party chairman Friedrich Merz.

The day after, the Christian Democrats will pass a new Grundsatzprogramm – a core party programme that outlines their key policy principles. The last one dates back to 2007, when then-chancellor Angela Merkel, who declined an invitation to the party conference, was still heading the CDU.

“It is the fourth in the history of the CDU in Germany. It will be historic and important,” CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann said on Sunday at a press conference in Berlin.

With the new programme, the party aims to break with the more centrist course of Merkel and to strengthen the party’s conservative image, especially when it comes to migration and energy policy, as “mistakes were made” in the past, according to Linnemann.

However, some within the party are unhappy with the course correction.

“We are not currently reaching many people who voted CDU under Merkel,” Daniel Günther, CDU prime minister in Schleswig-Holstein told Funke Mediengruppe.

European election

The third day of the congress will exclusively deal with the upcoming European elections.

“On this day, we are also deliberately launching the hot phase of our European election campaign,” the Chairman of the CDU/CSU Group in the European Parliament, Daniel Caspary, said on Sunday.

While the party will advocate for increasing European competitiveness, security will be the overarching issue in the CDU’s election campaign. According to Caspary, Europe has to “defend its freedom” against the Russian attack against Ukraine.

“Putin’s war of aggression is also a clear declaration of war on free Europe. He has been waging a hybrid attack against us Europeans for years. And so Ukraine is also fighting for our freedom,” he told reporters.

Furthermore, the CDU is also planning to bet on enhancing European capabilities by driving forward a “defence union” and having a defence commissioner, echoing the proposal of commission president and CDU lead candidate Ursula von der Leyen.

According to Caspary, this European election will be a “landmark election”.

“We want a strong pro-European awakening,” Caspary said, adding that “we stand for a Europe on an equal footing with the world.”

(Oliver Noyan | Euractiv.de)

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