In Lübeck, the show begins to run be the candidate for the CDU presidency. Who wants to follow Angela Merkel, it must first make in eight regional conferences impression. Whether it remains in the case of the three prominent candidates, is open.
At the beginning of the lot decides. When Friedrich Merz, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and Jens Spahn (in the picture from left) this Thursday evening at the candidates rally for the succession of CDU leader Angela Merkel to start, it needs to be clarified in Lübeck, and in what order you should talk to. Eight Times within 16 days, you will face three hours of the base. Of the 20 Applicants that have been traded, or a conversation had taken, these remain the three most Prominent candidates left. Some of the other fight, but still.
Three candidates, there was never in the more than 70-year history of the CDU. The party of Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (on the 1849-1963) and Helmut Kohl (1982-1998) are internal revolutions. Usually a Person of the top bodies is named, and then from the party days of good-thrilled to be chosen. And now a three-way fight at the party conference in Hamburg, and eight preparatory regional conferences with the base.
Departure after the Hesse election: Merkel has announced that it will no longer CDU to want the Boss to stay
Uses this Format in halls of medium size, the party often, when decisions are difficult. The three-way competition for the Bonn-based political scientist Andreas Püttmann “a star hour and a direction of the fight.” In the meantime, a large number of applicants had also been a “crisis signal” for the mood of the party.
Election on may 7. December
Chancellor Merkel, who leads since the year 2000 the CDU had announced after the party’s disappointing result of the Hesse election, the Federal party Congress on 7. December not to play in Hamburg again for the party leadership. Within twelve hours of General Secretary Kramp-karrenbauer (56), Federal Minister of health Spahn (38) and side-returners Merz (63) stated then, 20 years ago, one of the Unions-hope and then, in the face of Merkel made the policy out, your willingness to candidacy.
Andreas Püttmann, Political Scientist
Püttmann holds in an interview with Deutsche Welle, nothing of the deterioration of “liberal women against conservative men” – so easy you could make it. “Kramp-Karrenbauer has expressed very concisely against gay marriage. It can be described ideologically as a ‘mutt,'” he says. “Merz is a sharp anti-right, the AfD has been referred to as openly national socialist – so far no one else has gone. And he is a strong Pro-Europeans. And Spahn, who is gay, calls for at least liberalism for its own life-form.” Püttmann refers to the orientation of the CDU base: Not even one in five Union supporters wanted the CDU moves to the right. For this argument, the topic of refugees is advertising, especially when permanent, are most likely to Spahn.
Dynamics with the show running
In the polls the ACC is, like the previous Secretary General with the long name is often called, currently just ahead of Merz. According to the Emnid 32 percent Kramp would prefer-karrenbauer, Merz 30 per cent. With nine percent Spahn seems to be cut off. But Püttmann looks still not a foregone conclusion: In the CDU, the officials were “always a little more conservative than the voters, and also as the current party leadership”. Therefore, Merz will have good chances. And then Püttmann refers to the upcoming showcase of the candidates: “The dynamics also by the regional conferences in which the delegates are to be represented, the image as completely open.”
The CDU party headquarters in Berlin -, built like a ship. Currently, a little restless.
Who wants to and who can
So the election campaign of the CDU is now. The three talk shows and newspaper interviews. A competition is also available in the book market: at the beginning of October, I appeared from the pen of a journalist, the inside of the title, “I want to and I will: Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the CDU and the Power”, four weeks later, followed by a male journalist “Jens Spahn – The biography”.
In eight Meetings – six in the West, two in East Germany – to the three the base and their issues. After the drawing of lots can imagine the candidates are each ten minutes long, it moderated questions from the audience follow. In Lübeck, the 900 party members. Longtime observers assume that the base wants no spectacle, but in fact, the clarification of open questions seeking. The had regional conferences in previous years.
Closer to Merkel: Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer
It remains to be seen whether the Competition will be sharper. There are some indications. Jens Spahn threw his opponent to hurt him with their attitude to marriage for same-sex couples personally. If “our marriage is mentioned in one breath with incest or polygamy, it hits me personally,” Spahn said in an Interview. Six months ago, the “time”-Supplement to “the Christian and the world asked him” why he had defended Kramp-karrenbauer, “as claimed: the marriage for all is the gateway to polygamy and Verwandtenehe”. The sheet tends to be colored readership of the 38-Year-old said: “I have Annegrets defends right to be of a different opinion. I found the malice and the hatred they endure, out of place and disrespectful.”
A Single Fighter
And what of the other candidates who had announced for the part since September, a candidacy? You have all the sailing cancelled due to the big names? Most of them, such as, for example, the Bonn international law Matthias Herdegen. But a single fight yet.
Jan-Philipp Knoop, 26-year-old Student from Berlin, is currently looking for a circuit or district Association, proposing it officially, and him paving the way for the election at the party conference. “My application still stands,” he says of the German wave. He is currently engaged in talks with several district organizations in different Parts of the Republic, whether they nominated him. And he reserve legal steps. The procedure of the regional conferences had only been ten days ago, announced within such a short time, an independent candidate who does not come from the Establishment, hardly a Chance to reach an official nomination.