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Former CDU parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz is visiting Markus Lanz on Thursday evening.
In the ZDF Talk he talks about the corona pandemic, the state of Germany after 16 years of Merkel's chancellorship - and about his own popularity in the eastern federal states.
ZDF capital correspondent Nicole Diekmann points out that CDU chancellor candidate Armin Laschet probably brought his party friend Merz into his team because of his high standing in the east.
After all, Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) was the preferred candidate for Union Chancellor there.
Lanz then asks Merz, who was defeated by Laschet in the fight for the CDU chairmanship at the beginning of the year: “Are you some kind of substitute Söder in the East?” - Merz: “No, I wouldn't say that.
Personally, I really enjoy being there. ”-“ Because you are celebrated there, ”replies Lanz.
"Why are you celebrating?" - Merz: "Because I speak their language and because I address the issues the way the majority of people might like it."
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Then the 65-year-old goes out: he also enjoys going to eastern Germany privately, for example going to the Frauenkirche in Dresden on the weekend. Lanz doesn't want to hear all of this: “Mr. Merz, please! It's not about that they somehow have beautiful blooming landscapes there, ”the moderator straddles. "What are the topics? Where do you get the nerve of East Germans? ”He asks again. And then Merz becomes even more specific - at least a little: "When I say, for example, that we have to take into account a story that went differently than my biography, for example."
With reference to Saxony-Anhalt, where Merz supports his party colleague Reiner Haseloff in the state election campaign, Lanz - leaning forward and narrowing his eyes - then raises what is probably the most provocative question: "Are you something like a Maaßen light?" - Merz: " I wouldn't accept that at all, no! "
Lanz wants to know next whether Merz thinks it is good that the former President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maaßen, is running for the CDU in the federal election in southern Thuringia.
Merz says succinctly that he accepts the constituency's decision.
Maaßen should now win the constituency and then "integrate" into the parliamentary group of the Union.
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Maassen, says Merz, was a good President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. “You have to see whether he will become a good politician.” Maaßen, who among other things approved the election of FDP politician Thomas Kemmerich at the beginning of 2020 as Thuringian Prime Minister with votes from the AfD, is “still a CDU member - if we think so are that he does not belong in the party, then we have to kick him out, ”said Merz. The former CDU leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer refrained from trying to do just that, "for good reasons," said Merz, with a view to Thilo Sarrazin's long-standing party exclusion process from the SPD.
The nomination of Maassen as CDU candidate for the Bundestag had triggered severe criticism last week - also in his own party.
Christian Democrat Serap Guler, State Secretary for Integration in North Rhine-Westphalia, who is considered a confidante of Chancellor candidate Laschet, tweeted in the direction of the 37 CDU members who had elected Maassen: “You really didn't hear the bang!
How can you be so crazy and just throw Christian democratic values overboard?
Anyone who is so afraid of the AfD has long since given up so much.
A bitter day. "
For his part, Merz sharply criticized Güler's verbal attack on Lanz: As a civil servant state secretary, she is not entitled to dismiss the party members' decision as “crazy”, according to Merz.