Merz confidently elected: the CDU is already threatened with new wounds and turmoil

Two things in particular are remembered from the CDU party conference and the election of the new chairman: the good result for Friedrich Merz and the wound of the past year, which, as Armin Laschet emphasized, remains as a scar.

The good result for Merz - also for his general secretary Mario Czaja - was probably due to the longing among all delegates that the presidency staccato of the past few years should finally be over.

The CDU wants clear conditions.

No sign of division, no hint of a power struggle, no reason to doubt: Merz emerges as the clear winner from the vale of tears into which the CDU brought itself before and after the federal election. The fact that he was able to assert himself so confidently shows two things. Firstly, for large parts of the party, Merz is apparently very compatible with the alleged Merkel character that has emerged over the past twenty years.

But was this coinage primarily a coinage of the party or rather of the government?

The party is obviously struggling with this: Jens Spahn got off with a black eye, Annette Widmann-Mauz, after all chairwoman of the Women's Union, but like Spahn, representative of this government, failed in the presidency election.

The party, which also shows the choice of Merz, wants more real attention.

If in the case of the CDU that always means a return to power.

The success of Merz is therefore, secondly, a sign that Angela Merkel has almost been forgotten and that the "conservative" of all people stands for something new and different to begin.

Clear address to "Mr. Scholz"

The only unnecessary discord before this party congress, Merkel's rejection of the honorary presidency and a joint dinner with the new party leadership, is not just a farewell of a very special, Merkel-esque kind. It symbolically reflects the admission that there is a need in the party for a time after Merkel has spread. Merz's clear election shows that large parts of the party apparently also want to make up for lost time.

In terms of content, what was missed at this party conference did not mean social policy, climate policy or migration policy, but social policy that Merkel had left to the social democrats. This was certainly a side effect of the grand coalitions, but it turned out to be a blank space out of habit during the election campaign. The CDU simply no longer had the issue on their screens. That will certainly change with Mario Czaja as Secretary General.

In his speech, he made it very clear what role Merz sees for himself. He dedicated parts of it to a direct address to the Federal Chancellor, to “Mr. Scholz”, whom he accused of not being able to fill his office. Merz also made it clear who is currently Scholz's challenger in the CDU, even if there is no election. However, Merz dampened hopes that this challenge could quickly lead to the goal right at the beginning of his speech. It could be a "long road".

What does that mean for the most important person in the party that is now pending?

Merz will know for sure that he can only redeem the claim to leadership, which he formally emphasized at the party conference, if he also takes over the chairmanship of the parliamentary group in the Bundestag.

That would have to happen soon in order not to stumble into the forthcoming state elections with the next leadership discussion.

It would be the next wound inflicted on the party, which has nothing to do with the scarred of the past year.

Is the CSU also in the way of Merz?

Because the CDU will not be able to solve this leadership question without the CSU.

The greeting from Markus Söder distributed praise in all CDU directions.

However, the fact that there was still great resentment about being forced into defeat by Armin Laschet and the CDU leadership was evident from the fact that Söder did not mention the outgoing chairman Laschet once.

If Merz does not succeed in replacing Ralph Brinkhaus as group leader and thus becoming the leader of the opposition, it could also be because Söder is working towards keeping Brinkhaus.

He and the CSU state group live better with shared CDU power than with a one-man leadership, which could claim the next chancellor candidacy more clearly than Laschet.

The fact that Merz has such a candidacy in mind should be just as clear as Söder's claim after a successful Bavarian election.

Merz will have to turn the clear victory in the transitional turmoil of the time after Merkel into a success.

Otherwise he too remains a man of transition in a party that could face new wounds and turmoil.