Former CDU chairman Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has expressed skepticism about a possible member survey about the future party leadership.
If you look at the previous experience with primary elections, "I can only say: They alone are no guarantee that things will necessarily get better afterwards," said Kramp-Karrenbauer of the weekly newspaper Die Zeit.
She referred to examples in Baden-Württemberg, where such an approach tended to deepen divisions.
Kramp-Karrenbauer also rejected the proposal to initially hold the party chairmanship in trust for a transitional period.
“If you want to go into a strong opposition, you have to be well organized.
Whether only a fiduciary management is the right signal that one really accepts the opposition - I'll put a question mark on it, ”said the defense minister.
The current party leader Armin Laschet has announced his withdrawal after the defeat of his party in the federal election.
A member survey is currently being discussed mainly from those around Friedrich Merz, who twice failed at party congresses in the struggle for party chairmanship;
first against Kramp-Karrenbauer and then against Laschet.
Altmaier warns of a shift to the right
Regarding Laschet's role, Kramp-Karrenbauer said: "The CDU is a party that has always been very clear at one point: Anyone who bears responsibility as chairman and cannot deliver the desired success quickly becomes a thing of the past in the CDU." But it has always led to the necessary renovations.
She compared the party with FC Bayern Munich: “The CDU expects success.
And they are expected to be successful.
For this you are elected, that is the task.
Everyone who is running knows that. "
Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier (CDU) warned of a shift to the right by the party.
The CDU was always strong "when it was a very prominent party in the center," he told Deutschlandfunk.
She must continue the path chosen by the outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU).
Altmaier also warned of a "mud fight" over the question of whether Laschet was the right candidate for Chancellor.
"I don't think that looking back at individual hiring decisions will help renewal," he said.
Laschet only prevailed after a long struggle as a candidate against CSU boss Markus Söder, and numerous CDU politicians had also tended to tend towards Söder.
Both Kramp-Karrenbauer and Altmaier have waived their parliamentary mandates in order to enable younger people to enter parliament via the Saarland CDU state list.