The SPD can no longer claim the title “The political comeback of the year” exclusively for itself and Olaf Scholz.
Friedrich Merz 'clear victory in the first round of the CDU member survey plays in the same league, even if this success does not help to move into the Chancellery, but only to the top floor of the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus.
Like Scholz, Merz did not throw the gun in the grain after defeats in his own party.
Confident of his popularity with the party base, he also made a third attempt to become CDU chairman.
His assessment that he had more supporters among the “simple” members than with the “establishment” was not deceptive.
According to the statutes, Merz will not be elected until the party congress in January.
After this preliminary run, however, it will be a formality with an even better result.
The CDU can regain its profile
True Merzians in the CDU should now, with all their joy and satisfaction, quarrel with the fact that their idol was not promoted to the CDU boss three years ago or at least in January. But this milk is shed. After the electoral defeat, the party must now regroup as quickly as possible and fill the role that the strongest opposition party has to play. Unhindered by the need to reach an agreement with coalition partners, the CDU can regain its own profile, which it increasingly lost in the Merkel era.
Merz will not be able or willing to move the party to the “right” as uncompromisingly as some of his fans are hoping for.
Merkel's line and style still have more supporters in the party than one might believe given the manageable results of Röttgen and Braun.
But it is also clear what Merz was chosen for: for “clear edges”.
He could best demonstrate that as the leader of the opposition in the Bundestag, that is, as a parliamentary group leader.
All good things do not have to come in threes on a day like this for everyone in the CDU.