CDU regional conference in North Rhine-Westphalia: nothing has been decided – politics

• In the sixth and because of the influence of the NRW national badociation, the CDU's most important regional conference in Düsseldorf uses Spahn and Merz as a major badet.
• They arrive a little better than Kramp-Karrenbauer.
• But the Saarlander also marks and is more committed to climate protection and social issues, as it seems that his counterparts are right.

Their country and their NRW-CDU, they are simply too big for a single candidate of their own ranks. Oliver Höhn, the investment advisor of Langenfeld, and Christian Stevens, the student from the Borken district, could at least hear on this point. But otherwise?

Höhn, the Rhinelander wearing a sweater-tie, recently suffered from his CDU, "deviated from his fundamental virtues", that is to say "faith, custom, home". Now that Merkel is innovating after 18 years, a conservative Catholic is counting on the return: "I'm for Friedrich Merz", he admits, even before the gladiators of the three parties enter the vast draped black cloth scene. Twenty meters away, to the right, is student Stevens, the 22-year-old trade unionist from Westphalia. His eyes shine, while he marvels in front of "a fresh start": "That's exactly what Jens Spahn is for!"

Merz and Spahn will have their home match at the CDU regional conference in the huge hall 9 of the Düsseldorf trade fair on Wednesday. Above them tonight, the applause is generally a little stronger and warmer than those of AKK, the third in the league of CDU presidential candidates. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer also understands how to score locally. In her introductory speech, she recalls that just before the NRW spring 2017 elections, she urged her political party friends not to go into difficult ballots. "Start fighting," she called in the CDU country, and here it is: "What's good is that you really took it seriously!" And won. The Rhenish applaud as Westphalia.

The sixth of the eight CDU regional conferences is clearly the largest and largest, with nearly 4000 participants in the exhibition hall. NRW weighs heavily in the party: 296 delegates out of 1001 of the party congress in Hamburg will come from the Rhine, Ruhr or Weser.

A comparison of forces? The so-called loyal AKK, Saarland, will count 34 voters during the confrontation of Merkel's legacy in the Hanseatic city – whereas only the district of Münsterland, from which Jens Spahn comes, sends 39 delegates to the # 39; Elbe. And the Sauerlander Friedrich Merz, NRW's second child among the three potential leaders, thinks that 34 Loyalists from the South Westphalia district are behind them in Hamburg.

Merz scores points with his network

Only, nobody can be sure that the soldiers of the aboriginal party are behind them. Thus, all the aspirants considered a few things to present something new at the sixth parade. Merz succeeds on condition, he calls for a clearer profile of the Christian democracy: "She suffered from the clarity of our positions". It only varies what it has already distributed last week – and what it then quickly repeated: "You are not obliged to take over all positions of the SPD". Later, the 63-year-old manager scores points with his global network. For example, when he tells what old Henry Kissinger whispered to him: "Germany is too small for the world and too big for Europe". Respect is in applause.

Jens Spahn acts differently. He has formulas ready to profile the core of his brand, as Merz would say: his (relatively) young age. For example, about finance: "The solos were presented at the age of nine, I will now be 40 years old," says the 38-year-old in the room. In addition, Spahn always saves practical and comprehensible ideas for the media. Sometimes he claims "modern patriotism", then "a European Stanford", that is, an elite university for artificial intelligence. Or he wishes to take a Bundeswehr vow in front of the Reichstag – at least once a year.

Höhn and Stevens applaud a lot and often. For your favorite, but from time to time for NRW's competitors. After just under three hours, Höhn sees Merz's hope as a close winner, "at least, if you go after the applause, but it's rare." Stevens continues to swear by his idol Spahn. He had talked more about the future than the two competitors, "from Germany in 2040 and digitization, that's what counts!

And AKK, according to polls, the favorite of the party congress? Kramp-Karrenbauer did not experience his best night on Wednesday. The former secretary general sometimes seemed a little nervous. But also foreigners scored points, with more thought, with more confessions about social or climate protection, as it seemed to be the next type. But whoever wins in Hamburg at the end of the day, nobody knows, even after the conclave candidate of Düsseldorf.