A significant slice of the German centre-right CDU membership is saying that it has had enough of leader Friedrich Merz, leading to resignations from the party.
In what was the start of a series of departures, 18 party members, including the entire leadership of the local CDU association in the small north-eastern town of Kühlungsborn, quit the party earlier this week.
They cited two main reasons: Merz’s decision to ease strict borrowing rules to be able to take on a massive €1 trillion in additional debt, and the move to enshrine in the constitution 2045 as a compulsory climate neutrality deadline.
They are also concerned about the upcoming government’s migration policy which will not be as tough as Merz promised, as he tries to appease his future coalition partner, the pro-migration Social Democrats (SPD).
Local CDU politician Lars Zacher says it is unacceptable that Merz is ignoring the “DNA” of the party, its traditional fiscal conservatism, and is stifling German competitiveness with climate targets that are even more ambitious than the European Union’s.
Following in the footsteps of Zacher and his colleagues are the mayor of the eastern town of Fredersdorf-Vogelsdorf, Thomas Krieger who quit the party after thirty years as a member, and Daniel Hackenjos, a former prominent politician in the CDU’s Baden-Württemberg branch.
In the Thuringian town of Eisenach, one of the local leaders of the party, Andreas Neumann, who has also announced his departure, said that the CDU has become
a party that betrays its own principles, breaks election promises, and has deliberately deceived its voters.
Neumann said he had been pondering resigning after the CDU in Thuringia chose to govern together with two left-wing parties, and to rely on the support of the far-left Die Linke, instead of building a coalition with the right-wing Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).
The decision to finally quit the party came as Friedrich Merz undemocratically circumvented the newly elected federal parliament to push through his spending spree with the help of the Social Democrats and the Greens.
According to media reports, a dozen members have also resigned in recent days in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, and other politicians left the party in the Hamburg and Hesse branches.
Merz’s betrayal is reflected in opinion polls: since winning the national election in February with its second worst result ever, the CDU/CSU alliance’s support has dropped from 28.5% to 26%.
Meanwhile, the AfD has strengthened its support, climbing up from 20.8% to 24%.
