CDU feud before leadership retreat: Prien rejects Rhein's call for a rightward turn
Ahead of a two-day leadership retreat starting Sunday, Chancellor Merz's party is openly divided over its course. Deputy leader Prien firmly rejected calls for a more conservative CDU.
Archive image · Photo: Sandro Halank, Wikimedia Commons / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
A day before a CDU leadership retreat to review election defeats in Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin, a dispute over the direction of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's party broke into the open. Deputy leader and Education Minister Karin Prien told Reuters the party had stayed silent for two or three years and could no longer do so, adding that the "CDU pure" approach had failed.
Prien took aim at Hesse's state premier Boris Rhein, who said days ago the CDU had to become more conservative. She said she firmly rejected that demand, arguing the party had instead become too conservative and had failed to emphasise its Christian-social side.
Others in the party are focusing on everyday concerns. Thuringia's state premier Mario Voigt said the CDU needed to talk about how to make life affordable again. The presidium meets on Sunday and Monday; General Secretary Franziska Hoppermann warned against quick fixes.