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The CDU does not cooperate with right-wing populists.
The CDU does not make pacts with enemies of democracy and the opponents of a free society.
With this mantra, Angela Merkel's party draws - at least publicly - its demarcation lines to the AfD.
If politicians or even entire regional associations violate this, resignations and government crises follow.
The drama about the prime ministerial election in Thuringia cost Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer the chair.
The aftershocks of the radio license fees in Saxony-Anhalt were more than clearly felt in the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus.
Nevertheless: The safety distance to the AfD, he holds largely.
Even if the demarcation in Germany to right-wing populists and anti-democratic opponents works halfway: The compass with which the CDU tries to navigate through the waters of the Middle in domestic politics seems to swing hard to the right in Europe.
In Budapest the self-proclaimed “illiberal democrat” Viktor Orbán cemented his autocratic rule.
Universities are expelled from the country, journalists are muzzled, activists harassed, and refugees stigmatized.
Most recently, Viktor Orbán blocked the EU budget and Corona aid for weeks because he resisted linking EU money with adherence to the rule of law.
Viktor Orbán is an autocrat in Europe.
And he enjoys the protection of the CDU.
His Fidesz party is still part of the parliamentary group of the European People's Party (EPP) - alongside the MEPs of the CDU and CSU.
Fidesz MPs are still negotiating laws on behalf of the European Christian Democrats, while their party leader puts the European Union in line with the Soviet regime and other party leaders thrash anti-Semitic propaganda.
These are conditions that can hardly be endured.
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This is how 14 EPP member parties see it, who want to exclude Fidesz from the party family.
Who is missing?
The CDU.
When Viktor Orbán took the whole of Europe hostage with his veto against the EU budget in December, Brussels looked hopefully to Berlin.
A word of power from the Chancellor or the outgoing party leader?
Nothing.
Viktor Orbán owes the fact that Viktor Orbán can continue to act as a member of the EPP to the protective hand from the Konrad Adenauer House.
But can he also rely on the goodwill of the new party leader?
Whether Fidesz flies out of the conservative party family will be one of the first decisions of the future CDU leadership, said EPP parliamentary group leader Manfred Weber (CSU) recently.
But who should the 1001 CDU delegates vote at the party congress if they want Orbán, the enemy of democracy, to disappear from their own ranks?
Silence with Norbert Röttgen.
No positioning by Armin Laschet.
Friedrich Merz also lacks a clear line.
Sometimes he suggests an exclusion from Fidesz, only to express the cautious wish “that Fidesz remains with the EPP” a little later.
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Europe will closely follow the Union congress.
Because the future of democracy and the rule of law in the European Union also depends on the decision of the new CDU chairmanship on the Orbán question.
Viktor Orbán did enormous damage not only in Hungary.
His system is being copied in other European countries.
The CDU will have to decide: Anyone who is serious about demarcation from the far right is not only keeping their distance from the AfD.
Anyone who believes in campaigning for democracy in Europe also throws Fidesz out of the EPP.
Source: picture alliance / dpa
Daniel Freund is a member of the European Parliament for the Greens. There he was negotiator for the rule of law mechanism.