Election in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania | CDU leader Peters resigns – Amthor takes over

Daniel Peters (l), CDU state chairman and the CDU's top candidate in the state election, is leaving, Philipp Amthor (CDU), State Minister for Federal-State Relations and deputy state chairman of the Northeast CDU, is taking over for the time being. Photo: Jens Büttner/dpa Schwerin.  After the CDU left the state parliament in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, top candidate Daniel Peters resigned as state chairman. On an interim basis, the State Minister for Federal-State Cooperation in the Federal Chancellery, Philipp Amthor, will temporarily lead the regional association. CDU general secretary Katy Hoffmeister also resigned. Peters said after a meeting of the CDU state executive board in Schwerin that he was glad that the board had approved his proposal.

For him, drawing personal consequences is part of responsible politics, emphasized Peters. "I am sure that the CDU Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania will continue to play a key role in the future, even if we are not a member of the state parliament." 

It was Peters' first public appearance after the votes were counted for the state election, in which the CDU only achieved 4.9 percent in the northeast. This meant that the CDU missed out on entering a state parliament in the Federal Republic for the first time. 

Peters did not come to the Konrad Adenauer House in Berlin “the day after,” nor did General Secretary Hoffmeister appear at the state press conference in Schwerin Castle. But this should not be understood as an affront to the federal party committees, said Peters. »Not an affront to Friedrich Merz either. On the contrary: I agreed with him that way," he said, referring to the Chancellor and CDU federal chairman. 

For him, it was more important to talk to the employees of the state parliamentary group who now needed a new professional perspective, said Peters. 

Peters did not take over the state and parliamentary group chairmanship until 2024. He was the successor to state parliament member Franz-Robert Liskow, who surprisingly announced his resignation at the beginning of 2024. 

There has been a lot of movement at the CDU leadership in the northeast in recent years: at the beginning of 2020, the then CDU hopeful Vincent Kokert surprisingly resigned. He was followed by Michael Sack, who threw in the towel prematurely after the dramatic election defeat in 2021. In March 2022, Liskow was elected party leader. In the meantime, Eckhardt Rehberg took over the interim leadership of the state party. 

Amthor said he would have wished that Peters and Hoffmeister had not resigned but had remained responsible. The defeat hurts a lot because the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has been shaped by the CDU since the reconstruction phase after the fall of the Wall. “But we also know that this is not Daniel Peters’ defeat.”

The CDU in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania now needs some time “to process this result and let it sink in,” said Amthor. "It would not be appropriate given the situation and the extent of the historical defeat to present an analysis here immediately or even to draw conclusions for a future analysis."

The realignment should now be discussed calmly in an orderly procedure involving the district associations. “We are aiming for a state party conference, not immediately in the next few weeks, but rather towards the beginning of next year,” said Amthor. “Until then, the state party will be fully capable of acting.”

The 33-year-old did not want to say whether he would be available beyond the interim solution. "That's not up for discussion now."

Hours before Peters, the deputy state chairwoman Ann Christin von Allwörden had already announced her resignation. Von Allwörden wrote on Instagram that the election results also left her speechless. But for them it is part of taking responsibility. This also includes “the honesty of drawing personal conclusions from it,” said the 47-year-old. 

"That's why I will be resigning from my political positions as deputy state chairwoman of the CDU Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and on the district executive committee of the CDU Vorpommern-Rügen," wrote the former police officer, who now wants to put on the uniform again.  dpa/nd

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