The end of history is over," announced the presidiums of the CDU and CSU right at the beginning of their "Cologne Declaration".

At least the CDU chairman Friedrich Merz is also intoning a party-political reorientation.

With Markus Söder, his CSU counterpart, things are a little more complicated.

Until the outbreak of war, Söder was not very distinguishable from the Social Democrats on the change-through-trade course.

He had also been a smiling guest of Vladimir Putin at a time when he had already instigated several wars and ordered or covered up various political murders.

That was at the beginning of 2020. At that time, Söder wanted to talk to Putin about "cooperation between Bavaria and Moscow" and conclude a Bavarian-Russian agreement.

According to the CSU leader at the time, both countries should “move closer together”.

Peter Carstens

Political correspondent in Berlin

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After the Cologne meeting on Monday, Söder said that he had come primarily to support the CDU Prime Minister in North Rhine-Westphalia, Hendrik Wüst, with a view to the state elections on May 15th.

He only mentioned the joint foreign policy paper later, but praised the "uniform line" that had been found.

Söder, also in the “Caution Team” with Corona, showed great understanding for the fears and concerns of the citizens.

"Not a good feeling" about arms deliveries to Ukraine

There are no photos from the Kremlin of Merz.

Nor is there any evidence of hesitation in describing the end of a world constitution that has brought prosperity to Germany for more than 30 years.

Söder, on the other hand, said last week that he "didn't have a good feeling" about arms deliveries to Ukraine.

His aggression was directed less against the Russian aggressors or pacifist intellectuals.

It was directed against the Green Anton Hofreiter, whom Söder caricatured at a party conference at the weekend as an armament lobbyist.

Merz, on the other hand, had been calling for the rapid and extensive delivery of large-caliber weapons to Kyiv with increasing vehemence for weeks and finally fixed this in a joint Ukraine resolution of the Bundestag.

Merz's best allies were the FDP defense politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens).

On the other hand, little was heard from the chairman of the Union in the Defense Committee.

Florian Hahn, who recently became “International Secretary” of the CSU, was previously Deputy General Secretary of the Bavarian party.

While Söder or the CSU honorary chairman Edmund Stoiber may try to put their pandering to Moscow into perspective, the Union as a whole describes the new situation in the "Cologne Declaration" without frills.

Francis Fukuyama had proclaimed the “end of history” shortly before the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, when it looked as if the liberal democracies had not only won a stage in the system competition, but had achieved overall success.

The Union had stuck to it until February 23 against its better knowledge.

With its Russia policy and by undermining the Bundeswehr in terms of material and personnel.

Now it says: “Germany is highly vulnerable in terms of its military and security policy”, the new challenges posed by the revisionist nuclear power, but also China and India, require “comprehensive defensiveness”.

The threat must be “recognized and described”.

It's not as if CDU politicians have completely failed to do so.

For example, the former party leader and Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer described the situation in a key issues paper at the beginning of last year and designed a retraining of the army for national and alliance defense.

However, it found hardly any less resistance in the ranks of the Union Bundestag faction than in the SPD.

Russia defines itself as a "counterpart to the West" and has recently "intensified its military and political threats and knowingly violated international treaties," it said.

But the paper written together with Inspector General Eberhard Zorn had hardly any consequences.

On the contrary, the new minister, Christine Lambrecht (SPD), put it aside.

The Union describes the situation as dramatic, not only because the previous peace architecture no longer exists, to which the former CDU chairwoman and Chancellor Angela Merkel worked for years and initially in vain.

The Union defines a security concept that also takes into account climate damage, global food security, energy policy dependencies, a structurally weak German administration and social challenges from "unequal living conditions".

Therefore, the CDU and CSU propose setting up a "National Security Council" that should analyze and strategically classify all aspects, and the federal states and municipalities should also be involved.

The paper was supplemented by a passage on France, which will continue to be led by Emmanuel Macron after the presidential election and should become even more important as a partner.

Merz said that the upcoming American congressional elections in the fall could soon result in changes in Washington that will affect the European-American partnership.

The presidiums of the CDU and CSU met again in person for the first time.

After the quarrels, Söder and Merz had agreed to meet regularly before and during the election campaign in order to focus more on common ground again.