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WELT AM SONNTAG:
The Republicans are threatened with a split between Trump supporters and the moderate wing.
Do you see the CDU facing a similar situation after the federal presidency elections?
Stefan Aust:
The Germans don't tend to be so radicalized.
In the end, a lot depends on whether Armin Laschet can make an offer in terms of content and personnel for both currents, because that is always what matters in a people's party.
But I don't see that the party could break down on this question.
WELT AM SONNTAG:
Many younger CDU functionaries had spoken out in favor of Friedrich Merz, including the Hamburg regional chief Christoph Ploß.
How do you explain the popularity of Merz from this camp?
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Aust:
A young person joins the CDU because he likes the emphatically conservative about this party - otherwise he could have gone to the Greens, the FDP or the SPD.
And then he wants to see that represented, Friedrich Merz was stronger than Laschet.
Over the years of party membership, you have got used to a lot of compromises and may no longer know exactly what your own driving force was.
Your own border lines have long since been shifted.
WELT AM SONNTAG:
What does the election of Armin Laschet mean for the federal election?
Aust:
First of all, the option remains that Markus Söder from the CSU can also run for the Union.
Whether that will be the case will probably very much depend on the further development of the corona pandemic.
Is the doer or rather the mediator type still in demand?
And then this decision still has to be clarified during Angela Merkel's chancellorship, which does not make it any easier - not even with a view to involving Merz.
A real reorganization of the content will only be possible without them.
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Stefan Aust is editor of WELT AM SONNTAG. Jörn Lauterbach asked the questions.
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Source: Welt am Sonntag