The CDU has a small problem and a big one.

The little one: you need a new chairman.

The big one: She doesn't yet know how to find him.

The search for the right path can - as we know it from hiking - lead in exactly the wrong direction, around in a circle or to a dispute among those who are traveling together.

So not only can it get better, it can get worse.

That's the risk.

And the mood is already bad anyway.

Many feel badly led, not only by Armin Laschet, the party leader, but also by his supporters on the federal executive committee.

Although they are self-critical, Laschet, in that he only wants to moderate the renewal of his party, and the board of directors, by running for new elections, but nothing follows from contrition.

Many want the last word

The party has to lead itself as a team until it has someone again to do it.

This is difficult, especially for a team that values ​​order, hierarchies and clear relationships.

That everyone has a say is nothing new, but that many want the last word.

You want to have a say in who becomes boss. This was the last thing the delegates at a party congress did; now the calls are getting louder for all members to participate. To discuss what to think of it, the chairmen of the 326 district associations meet at the end of the month. That sounds harmless at first, but it's not. The bosses who come together are the links between the grassroots and executives. Important people, some with a mandate, some without, but all well connected.

In the CDU, leading politicians still tell each other how Helmut Kohl, as party leader, regularly called district association chiefs. Either he noticed that there was a lot going on in the district association, then he asked: “Tell me, what's going on with you?” Or there was no reason at all, and Kohl just asked: “I wanted to hear what you guys did so busy. ”Merkel, too, one hears, has listened a lot to the party; At party congresses she was always the best-informed delegate, even as Chancellor.

With Laschet, some people miss this attention; they say that they invited Laschet during the election campaign but were not even turned down. They also get pressure from below, from ordinary members. Of course, also because the disappointment about the poor result in the federal election is great, but there was already rumbling in the months before. Many had wanted Merz as boss and not got it, then Söder as a candidate for chancellor. Again nothing. Wasn't this the time to listen to the party's gut instead of its head?

Many hope so.

The CDU statutes do not stipulate that the members elect the chairman.

But they can give a vote that has an influence as a mood picture.

Suppose it was written in black and white that the grassroots clearly preferred a certain candidate, then the delegates at an electoral congress could say: Good to know, but we'll take another one?

Tricky.