The Union made a moderate change of course at its 35th federal party conference.

Around a thousand delegates voted on Saturday to include the goal of equal rights as well as gender equality in the party's new basic program.

They also voted for the introduction of a compulsory social year for young people.

On Friday, the delegates had already voted for a women's quota, which will be introduced gradually and will initially apply temporarily until 2029.

Peter Carstens

Political correspondent in Berlin

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Lorenz Hemicker

Editor in Politics

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At the former coalition partner FDP, the intended introduction of a compulsory society year met with criticism.

Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) wrote on Twitter that young people had already suffered enough in the pandemic.

"The state must not simply dispossess another year of your life." The chairwoman of the Young Liberals, Franziska Brandmann, called the decision to the newspapers of the editorial network Germany a "scandal".

Ironically, after the restrictions of the corona pandemic, the design of your life should be "externally determined for a whole year".

The CDU chairman Friedrich Merz defended the decision.

"We know from surveys that the majority of the population is in favor of it," he said on ARD.

The CDU is the first party in the Bundestag

who is aiming for a mandatory year of society.

Only the AfD is still striving for the reintroduction of conscription for men.

The CDU and the Bavarian sister party CSU demonstrated a new unity at the party conference.

The Bavarian Prime Minister and CSU chairman Markus Söder also acknowledged mistakes last year, when the Union had achieved its historically worst result with 24.1 percent in the federal election.

They were made, "of course also by me," said Söder, who had constantly teased the then Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet during the election campaign.

The two chairmen of the CDU and CSU in Hanover offered the federal government to work together in view of the energy crisis.

According to Merz, this is necessary “in such a difficult time”, even if there are disputes about the details.

Similar to Merz on Friday, Söder had previously sharply criticized the traffic light and, among other things, accused it of being haphazard in the energy crisis.