CDU | CDU heads of government: No personnel debate “yet,” please!

North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst thinks that personnel debates would not be so good now. Photo: Friso Gentsch/dpa Political Germany has just witnessed an astonishing maneuver: all eight CDU prime ministers published a joint statement against personnel debates and are thus supporting Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Since the election debacle in Saxony-Anhalt, it has faltered to such an extent that just watching it can make you dizzy. But after all sorts of demands for resignation and criticism from various levels of the CDU/CSU parties, moral support now follows: “People can trust that we will tackle their problems. As Prime Ministers, we want and will make our contribution together with the Chancellor," the statement says.

However, one should not misunderstand this maneuver. On the one hand, the public support of the Chancellor by the CDU prime ministers was a long time coming. On the other hand, attentive readers may have noticed that the word “now” appears twice in the introductory paragraph: “Political Germany needs stability now more than ever. In this situation, what is important now is the unity, the energy and a clear course of the German Christian Democracy."

The meaning seems clear: the situation is serious and things have to happen quickly. However, this word could also be understood differently. Especially when you look at the summer interview of the potential replacement chancellor candidate Hendrik Wüst on Sat.1. When asked about a possible replacement of the Federal Chancellor, Wüst replies: "Personnel debates don't help now." And immediately after: "I don't think that's the quick answer that will solve all the problems." When asked whether Merz is still the right chancellor for him, Wüst replies: "It would be easy to say now that it's just one person or the other." When asked whether the situation is changing, the CDU in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania should go down Five percent fall, he explained: "Then it still wouldn't be right to talk about personnel alone."

Just like Markus Söder, who was recently praised at the CSU meeting in Munich by the spokesman for the conservative Eastern CDU state associations, the Saxon Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer, Wüst has probably never given up his ambitions for chancellor. Even if he asserts that he sees his task in North Rhine-Westphalia. Because the word “now” can also mean “for now.”

And on closer inspection, the Prime Minister's oath of loyalty doesn't sound unconditional either. It seems more like an emergency maneuver by frustrated state politicians, fed by the CDU's instinct for self-preservation. The fact that the heads of government even write such a statement screams the Chancellor's weakness to the world.

The declaration is not about strengthening the Chancellor. Rather, the CDU top dogs sense the danger that the Chancellor, in his brilliant incompetence, could not just maneuver the black cart into the mud, but rather push it over the nearest cliff. Merz is only being supported in order to stabilize the CDU a little before the elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin on Sunday. Whether the support will fall is completely open in the medium term and will be linked to the election results on Sunday and the further reform process in the coalition. Either way: Merz is counted.

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