CDU lawmaker Ernst questions Merz's dual role as chancellor and party leader
Bundestag member Bastian Ernst considers separating the chancellorship from the CDU chairmanship conceivable. His party has "lost some trust", he says.
Symbolic image · Photo: Ansgar Koreng / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 de (cropped and resized)
CDU Bundestag member Bastian Ernst has floated separating the chancellorship from the party chairmanship. "We have lost some trust," the 39-year-old, who heads the CDU district association of Oldenburg-Land in Lower Saxony, told the German Press Agency. Angela Merkel gave up the party chair and remained chancellor, and that could work again, he said. "The only question is when," Ernst said.
"We can't keep going forever with the leadership as it is now," Ernst said. In his view, Chancellor Friedrich Merz is doing "many things very well" on foreign policy "in very hard times", but "domestically, that's where it falters". Ernst explicitly also held the SPD responsible and pointed to the situation in local authorities.
The remarks come ahead of a conference of CDU district chairs with Merz planned for Monday and Tuesday in Berlin.