The new Prime Minister of Hesse, Boris Rhein, spoke of a "change in friendship and agreement" when he took over the leadership of the CDU from his predecessor Volker Bouffier at the weekend.

That wasn't the whole truth.

Because the seventy-year-old from Gießen originally wanted to compete again to prevent the fifty-year-old from Frankfurt.

The fact that the party did not allow this speaks for its vitality.

Rhein's euphemism is in line with the methods party conference directors like to use to create harmonious images in the public eye.

But the other actors obviously didn't feel like it.

So Bouffier did not find a word about the qualities of the successor he had officially proposed.

The listeners had already waited in vain for this when the CDU announced their new hope in February after a closed conference.

Now Bouffier was only convinced that his party's success story "will be continued with Boris Rhein".

He asked the delegates for their trust and support for his successor.

"He not only deserves it, he needs it too." Less is not possible.

But more would have been unbelievable.

Friedrich Merz probably said the same thing to himself.

The Union's leading federal politician thanked Bouffier for a "friendship that was resilient".

With these words he alluded to the fact that “dear Volker” had repeatedly tried with all his might to prevent Merz from becoming CDU chairman after Merkel’s withdrawal from the party leadership.

In the past, Bouffier and he "always agreed", Merz noted, "not always" in recent years, but "now again".

That's all true, said Bouffier.

But Merz laughed off his attempt to downplay the differences with verbal hugs, but firmly with the objection that Bouffier certainly "didn't like to hear the nuances".

Just as Bouffier was sparing in his praise for Rhein, so Merz avoided

to appreciate the achievements of Hesse, who is leaving politics.

Instead, he recalled that Bouffier's predecessor, Roland Koch, had led the CDU into government responsibility in 1999 with "courage for controversy".

The event offered great cinema: It came at the end of mutual personal injuries among party friends, which were not covered up, but carried out in such a way that no damage was caused - on the contrary: almost 98 percent of the delegates elected Rhein as the new chairman.

When Bouffier took over the leadership of the Hessian CDU twelve years ago at Koch's express request, he got 96 percent.

With his result, Rhein can go into the election battle well-armed.

For this he proclaimed a "compassionate conservatism".

But such terms are mere theory and belong in political science seminars.

Merz demonstrated how to get his listeners enthusiastic in the arena of political practice by warning the traffic light coalition against destroying a valuable social consensus that had been laboriously created over the years with topics such as abortion and transsexuality.

Without moving even a millimeter from the political center, the speaker from the Sauerland region demonstrated the persuasive power that classical conservatism can unleash.

Bouffier tried the Greens.

The near future will show what Rhein can do.