“Feel good appointments” – this word from her already shows where things should go now for Angela Merkel, long-term chancellor, long-term CDU chairwoman. In any case, the traveling retiree will probably not be going to the next party conference in Hanover at the beginning of September.
There were the colleagues from “The Pioneer” at the Kiwief, they asked. And even if the cancellation is not one hundred percent certain, it is one hundred percent certain that Merkel would find it difficult to listen to the speeches of her successor in the party office, Friedrich Merz.
Merz of all places. The two have been connected to each other for decades, just not in friendship. To this day he feels betrayed by her, she still cannot understand why he was so apolitical back then, in the early 2000s, when she seized power.
That was first the group chairmanship of the Union, which Merz wanted to keep. And should, as he said. Or better: how he thought he could understand agreements with Merkel and the CSU leader at the time, Edmund Stoiber.
Since then, the need for talks has been rather low. Even a handwritten letter from Merz, with which he wanted to signal that he no longer wanted to hold grudges, didn’t change anything.
Now everything is different now and in such a way that the party under the leadership of Merz could become resentful. Because in all major fields of politics it is now not least about their political legacy. Nobody in the CDU prefers to call it heritage anymore.
Although that would have the advantage of being able to be turned down. No way, the SPD is to blame for everything: Russia policy, energy policy, defense policy, European policy – if things were honest at a CDU federal party conference, then the former chancellor would get something to hear.
And little to nothing positive. After so many tough years in office, who could want that? In which she was once positively certified by the then Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, Christian Wulff, that she led – like a good shepherdess – from behind.
That was very kind. Merkel driving the herd in front of her? That wasn’t true even then. She often followed the mood of the population and then took the lead when the direction was clear. The fact that the direction turns out to be wrong in some cases, now, is therefore also attributed to Merkel.
Which, on the other hand, is of course not entirely fair; and which Merz would not do either, because he always expected fairness from her. And then there was no autocracy, which is why it is appropriate for someone who wants to lead the CDU back into government to attack the SPD.
But Merkel was always cautious in her own way, and you never know. She would certainly feel more comfortable if she knew that the party congress was not developing its own dynamic. But no one knows that with 100% certainty.
