Former CDU General Secretary Mario Czaja, CDU leader Friedrich Merz and the new CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann in Berlin in June 2023
Image: AFP
Anyone who rules out any cooperation with the AfD, but at the same time wants to halve their supporters, must make their own party more attractive to socially conservative voters. The new Secretary General Carsten Linnemann could succeed in doing that.
Vrom the beginning, Mario Czaja was more of an embassy than Secretary General. With the friendly, liberal man from East Berlin, CDU party leader Friedrich Merz wanted to demonstrate that nobody had to fear an overly radical departure from the Merkel years. Now Czaja is history – and with it the political signal. With the change in the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus, Merz has set the course for a change of course.
Anyone who has listened to the party over the past few weeks and months knows that the CDU leader did not make this decision without pressure. The impatience with the leadership was palpable deep into the middle of the Union, especially with their snaking course, which was not least personified in the unequal, almost neutralizing top tandem.
