Steinmeier successor | Merz: The opposition in your own camp

The search for a successor to Steinmeier shows how little authority Merz has within his own ranks. Photo: dpa/Kay Nietfeld Friedrich Merz has the next trouble on his hands. The CDU/CSU parties apparently disagree about the successor to Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The coalition leaders had actually agreed to present a joint proposal. But then the CSU sent Ilse Aigner into the race as a candidate. Merz kept a low profile about this at the CSU party conference in Munich at the weekend. There was then speculation as to whether the CDU, as the largest parliamentary group in the Bundestag, could nominate its own candidate.

In fact, the Merz camp in the CDU is trying to launch a candidate to oppose Aigner, Ines Claus. However, the parliamentary group leader of the Hessian CDU is almost unknown nationwide - not a good prerequisite for the office of head of state. Especially since parts of the Union have long been flirting with Aigner, including Saxon Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer. The SPD and the Greens can also imagine Aigner as Steinmeier's successor. SPD parliamentary group leader Matthias Miersch therefore asked himself what was still being waited for. After all, Aigner has long had a majority across party lines.

But Merz has remained silent about it so far. That's not clever. Because in doing so he is once again maneuvering himself into the role of the opposition. He is Chancellor and CDU chairman - he should hold the reins and shape it. But in the search for a new head of state, he is now even at risk of losing his own camp. Even his dashing speeches cannot hide this. Merz, it seems, has long since become a discontinued model. He is not even halfway through his term in office.

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