The Baden-Württemberg CDU wants to use new forms of party membership to stop the decline in membership and counteract the dwindling social anchoring.
In the future, there will be family membership, online party membership, project membership and a trial membership based on the CSU model.
Ruediger Soldt
Political correspondent in Baden-Württemberg.
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The trial membership should be free and then turn into a regular membership.
Online party members should have the right to speak at state party conferences, but not the right to vote.
Citizens who are interested in a specific political topic should be won over to become members of the project.
"Icebreaker Formats"
All suggestions are based on the final report of the future commission of the state association;
the commission was set up after several historic electoral defeats: in the state elections in March last year, the CDU, with 24.1 percent, was the second strongest party after the Greens for the second time;
in the federal elections in autumn, the CDU lost almost ten percentage points and only got 24.8 percent of the second votes.
Isabell Huber, general secretary of the state party, said that the CDU had to become stronger again, especially in the pre-political area. "Icebreaker formats" should be developed for this purpose, with which one wanted to recruit supporters in zoos, in sports facilities or houses of worship.
The commission did not make any suggestions regarding content or the future organization of the national association.
A new basic program will be written at the federal level, said Huber.
The organizational structure with four district associations should remain, although the regional representation in Baden-Württemberg today plays a subordinate role.
Ultimately, the question of direction has not been decided within the state association: while the CDU parliamentary group leader Manuel Hagel wants to profile his party with green issues and, for example, he wants to extend the lifespan of nuclear power plants in the short term as part of a stretching operation, others warn of a "greening" and only see a good coalition partner in the FDP.