“Stand there as a liar”
Party growth calculates with CDU boss Merz
Updated on 05.04.2025 – 3:44 p.m.Reading time: 3 min.
Union and SPD negotiate behind closed doors about a coalition. But what penetrates outwards brings CDU boss Merz to his party friends.
The ongoing coalition negotiations between the Union and the SPD are increasingly putting pressure on CDU boss Friedrich Merz. The approval values of his party recently dropped significantly; For the first time, the Union was on par with the AfD.
And even more and more people are breathing in their displeasure in their own ranks. The Junge Union Cologne has now even made an open letter to the party leadership. “We conveyed clear messages to the people in the election campaign. If nothing is implemented, we are on site as a liar,” it says, as “Süddeutsche Zeitung” and “Bild” report.
In total, the JU Köln makes five claims in the letter. The young Christian Democrats want the promised rejections at the border, no tax increases are introduced, the conscription comes back, reducing bureaucracy and ministers are filled after suitability.
The letter ends with the words “with combative, but missing greetings” and was also signed by the local CDU district association, reports “Bild”.
There is also criticism of previous negotiations in other district associations. Although this is not publicly expressed by the regional associations, this kept seeping through. Individual CDulers also dare. The Stuttgart member of the state parliament Reinhard Löffler, for example, told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (SZ): I have not yet heard a signal from Berlin that delights me in my conservative heart. “
The state chairman of the CDU social committees, Christian Bäumler, is also dissatisfied. “There is a lot of disappointment with the conservatives in the party. Many who were for Friedrich Merz are currently speechless,” he also says the “SZ”. Especially because of the special fund, there is “need for explanation”.
There is also unrest in the CDU in the north of the country. In one fell swoop, a third of the city association leaked in the Baltic Sea resort of Kühlungsborn. The 14 former CDU members named the special fund and the softening of the debt brake. This endangers the party’s DNA. “Each of us has entered the CDU from certain beliefs and basic values. However, if basic points and red lines are exceeded that destroy these values, one inevitably has to be taken,” the declaration of exit. Even climate neutrality does not belong to the Basic Law.
In addition, the angry and frustrated voices are increasing from the economy. In another open letter, several CDU-related medium-sized companies criticized the course in the negotiations. “These negotiations are not a compromise – they are a takeover by the SPD!” It says. The ten signatories, including the Baden entrepreneur Thomas Herrmann, call themselves “convinced Christian Democrats or voters of the CDU” and questions: “Where’s the CDU?”
The uncertainty and dissatisfaction run up to the party executive, as a member of the “SZ” describes: “In the party, it is bubbling everywhere, and the chairman and the general secretary think that in this situation it is best to stop communication with your management body.” The latter could also be an allusion to the fact that a board meeting on Monday was canceled at short notice because of Merz’s coalition negotiations. Apparently to the annoyance of other party directors.
Of course, the encouragement of your own party is important. But Merz is not explicitly dependent on government formation. Because while the SPD will carry out a member survey and thus decides on entry in a coalition, there is no such step in the Union.
A young politician now wants to change that. The 21-year-old Oliver Häusler, chairman of the Ju Filder, is currently collecting signatures for a corresponding membership survey. “Merz was elected by the members. Then it is our right to say as a basis that results from working groups are not satisfactory,” he said to “Bild”. He already had 830 votes together.
The CDU member representative Philipp Amthor has the broker role. He tries to appease. He was very confident that the CDU will succeed in “a successful start to a bourgeois-conservative government” in the coming months.
