What will change in Germany with Laschet at the helm of the CDU
Center, trust and integration were the concepts that Laschet communicated in his congress speech. Here are ideas and programs of the new president of the CDU in Germany. The in-depth study by Pierluigi Mennitti from Berlin
In the end there was no surprise and the CDU delegates elected the favorite candidate from the beginning as the new president. Armin Laschet succeeds Annegret Kramp-Karrembauer, but above all becomes the face of the post-Merkel. For the CDU and probably also for Germany. Because, contrary to what many observers believe, Laschet is dying to become chancellor, almost more than the great defeated Friedrich Merz , and will do everything to recover the consensus that the polls deny him for now.
Never as in the upcoming elections, the chances are very high that the Union candidate (the alliance of the two twin Christian parties, CDU and CSU) will also become the next chancellor. Laschet has no intention of missing the opportunity in favor of the two large stone guests of the digital congress: the leader of the CSU Markus Söder and the Minister of Health (and ally in the ticket with Laschet) Jens Spahn, elected vice-president by the congress. With the winner's chevrons, which always cast a new light and often transform ugly ducklings into swans, he will try to get back on top to play his chance to embody the post-Merkel to the end.
Time is not long and yours will be more of an obstacle race until the time when the Union has to decide who will run for the chancellery. Already in two months, on March 14 (pandemic permitting), its new CDU will have to face two very important electoral rounds: in Baden-Würrtemberg, where it governs as a junior partner with the Greens and in Rhineland-Palatinate, where it is instead at the opposition. These are two Länder once safe strongholds of Christian Democrats, which have fallen in recent years following a surprising inability of the regional political class to understand the needs and trends emerging from the territories.
In the fifteen years of Merkel's chancellorship, the local politics of the CDU suffered greatly from the excessive crushing of the party on its federal governmental dimension. Laschet will have to start from there, from the regions, a terrain that is congenial to him since it governs the most populous Land in Germany (North Rhine-Westphalia) after winning the elections convincingly in 2017.
The weight of Angela Merkel was certainly reflected in the vote of the delegates. Laschet was the candidate who most of all interpreted the idea of continuity with the chancellor's twenty years. But this time, unlike what happened with Kramp-Karrembauer, the congressional one was the victory of Armin Laschet, of his ability to keep the complex and varied Merkelian group, to add a part of the conservative component thanks to the alliance with Spahn and to present to the delegates the perspective of an open, modern, kind party. It will not be a Mini-Merkel.
Friedrich Merz is the great loser. The second defeat within two years undermines the ambitions of returning to politics through the front door. It is not certain that he will accept supporting roles in the new party or in a future government, nor that Laschet will offer them to him. The two have collaborated in the past in North Rhine-Westphalia, but relations have been torn apart in this long congressional campaign. A little more than two years ago Merz lost by a whisker against Merkel's candidate, in a moment of low popularity of the Chancellor, whose leadership in government and in the party seemed tarnished. It was objectively difficult that the role of outsider could produce better luck in a phase in which Merkel has regained charisma and power thanks to the management of the pandemic. An old political fox like Wolfgang Schäuble, who had supported him in 2018, had suggested that he give up because the big picture had changed. Uselessly. The end result says that Schäuble was right.
Center, trust and integration were the concepts that Laschet communicated in his congress speech. The center as a magnet of party politics, no bombastic rhetoric but "a box with artisan tools to build a center path". Trust to be transmitted in party relations and in society: the leader must be a captain who coordinates and guides teamwork. Integration as an antidote to the poison of polarization: to aggregate, involve, unite. All summarized in the paternal moral inheritance (a very apt rhetorical moment in his speech): his father, who before becoming an elementary teacher had been director of a mine, always said that when he was in the bowels of the mine it was not important to know where he came from the workmate, but if he could be trusted. A message that is the work program for the coming weeks: to build a working group that puts the party back at the center of political action and not the government. Laschet's leadership will also be measured in his ability to balance himself, near and distant, from the cumbersome figure of Angela Merkel. A delicate task in a phase dominated by the fight against the pandemic, which highlights the government's action.
Last chapter, Europe, and with it Italy. The most pro-European candidate of the trio was elected and, at least on paper, the most favorable for Italy. In the congressional campaign, he always exalted the Recovery Plan as a great financial tool to favor the recovery of European countries, underlining the common contribution and the importance of all EU members coming out of the economic crisis following the covid together. Contrary to what probably would have happened with Merz, the German breakthrough in Europe gained during the pandemic will be safeguarded. Whether it will form the basis for a relaunch of the EU or whether it will remain a timed turning point, linked to the contingency of an emergency, will also depend on how and if other countries exploit the opportunity of the Recovery. Starting with Italy.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/che-cosa-cambiera-in-germania-con-laschet-alla-guida-della-cdu/ on Sat, 16 Jan 2021 14:55:44 +0000.