Presidential dispute strains CDU-CSU ties at CSU convention

BR reports that the unresolved choice of a candidate for Germany’s presidency is testing relations between the CDU and CSU, after CSU delegates at their convention loudly backed state parliament president Ilse Aigner while Chancellor Friedrich Merz stayed silent on the issue.

The two Union leaders, Merz and CSU leader Markus Söder, had been expected to discuss the nomination after autumn’s state elections and coordinate with the Social Democrats. Many in the CSU had hoped they would present Aigner as their joint candidate before the convention in Munich. But five weeks after the elections, the CDU has sent mixed signals and no decision has been announced.

Merz has put the question on hold amid poor CDU election results in Saxony-Anhalt, Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, an internal debate about replacing him as chancellor, and the resignation of Social Democratic Party leader Bärbel Bas. He is also facing resistance to his reform plans. Even if Merz supports Aigner, the question remains whether he has enough authority within the CDU to secure its backing for a CSU candidate, BR’s analysis said.

Several CDU politicians are also being discussed as possible candidates: Education Minister Karin Prien, former CDU leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and Bundestag President Julia Klöckner. Some prominent Christian Democrats have argued that competence should matter more than the candidate’s gender, and have raised the possibility of choosing a lawyer. The SPD, whose votes will also matter in the federal convention at the end of January, continues to insist on a woman. The newspaper Bild reported that another name under consideration in the CDU is Ines Claus, leader of the party’s group in the Hesse state parliament.

Speculation that the CSU might use a convention resolution to pressure the CDU into backing Aigner was quickly dismissed. But a report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung saying the CDU opposed being committed to Aigner appeared on delegates’ phones as the convention began, and some CSU members regarded it as a political foul.

Söder said in his convention speech that he would be delighted if Aigner got the job, prompting the loudest applause of his address. When Merz later greeted Aigner from the stage, delegates rose and chanted her name for about a minute, interrupting his speech. Merz did not mention the presidency.

Speaking to BR later, Söder said he had not expected Merz to address the issue, though he would have welcomed it. He also noted that the CSU had never supplied a chancellor or federal president in the Union’s 75-year history, adding that it could argue that its turn had come.