Home Match in NRW – The Most Important Federal State

CDU presidential candidates travel to Düsseldorf: the Sauerland Friedrich Merz receives an ovation, the Kramp-Karrenbauer fights – and Jens Spahn has administered bitter pills. The appearance of the three applicants before the NRW base was particularly important.

Home match for Friedrich Merz: During the race for the presidency of the CDU, the former leader of the Union faction in North Rhine-Westphalia was celebrated with applause. Already after the speech of the Sauerlander at the introductory session of the three most promising candidates for the presidency of Düsseldorf, nearly half of the 3,800 members of the CDU stood up and applauded. CDU Secretary General Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn also received friendly applause on Wednesday night, but no "standing ovation".

Merz (63) and Spahn (38) both come from NRW. The largest regional badociation of the CDU represents nearly a third of delegates to the decisive conference of the federal party to be held at the end of next week.

During the question-and-answer session, the three candidates have always been combative. Merz, who had already campaigned for a German Leitkultur, said the CDU was the party with "healthy and modest patriotism". "We say yes to Germany and German national interests, not in the sense of an exaggerated nationalism," he added. Spahn wants a "healthy patriotism that invites, not one that excludes".

Merz: "Shari'a does not exist in German soil"

Merz called on German Muslims to accept German law without restrictions. "There is no sharia here on the German soil, we must better control the Koranic schools, it is not that our children take courses in public schools and are indoctrinated in Koranic schools" .

Freedom of religion in Germany also applies to Muslims, Merz emphasized. But for them also applies "all the remaining secular law of this state, and without any restrictions".

Kramp-Karrenbauer (56) said that if you do not want Koranic schools in Germany, you have to make a government offer for the education of Muslims in German. In addition, according to the NRW model, Muslim religious teachers should be trained in German.

Spahn demanded that German mosques no longer be financed from abroad. "We want President Steinmeier to open mosques, not Turkish President Erdogan." At the end of September, Recep Tayyip Erdogan had inaugurated the Ditib Central Mosque in Cologne as part of a state visit.

CDU regional conference in NRW: This is the sixth regional conference of the eight such meetings organized at national level, during which the three most promising candidates for the succession of Chancellor Merkel to the leadership of the party present their programs. (Source: dpa)

Kramp-Karrenbauer: "At the obstacle we will be measured"

The goal of Kramp-Karrenbauer was to bring the Union President back to the election results by 40%. "At the threshold, we will be measured." The union, with Merkel at the top of last year's general election, reached only 32.9% – the second worst result since 1949. At present, the Union poll is about 26%.

Merz reiterated that the UDC's downward trend should be stopped and reversed. The decline in CDU positions has been affected in recent years. He badured that he would not seek the end of the grand coalition as the new leader of the CDU. "There is no reason to speculate on new elections." He added, "We have an elected government."

Merz and Spahn have also attacked the Greens, which currently account for more than 20% of polls. It was a "double standard" when the Greens alleviated the clearing of the Hambacher forest for lignite mining, but were then chained to trees, Spahn said. Merz said: "The Greens need to clarify their relationship with the power monopoly of this state."

Spahn predicted that people should be ready to retire later in the future. "With the increase in life expectancy, the age of retirement from 2030 must continue to increase." Until now, the age of retirement is gradually rising until 2029. From the year of birth 1964, it is 67.

While Merz was often, but not always, the favorite for the presidency of the members of the CDU in Düsseldorf by the CDU. And there was certainly no automatism. Women from the Königswinter Women's Union preferred Merz instead of Kramp-Karrenbauer. "There are also good men," said Ute Westerhoff, 72.

The two friends Willi Paulsen and Franz Joerißen from Wegberg near Erkelenz were sitting next to each other and yet had different favorites. Paulsen is for Kramp-Karrenbauer because she has already shown what she can do as Saarland's prime minister. "I think she can lead a party." Joerissen, meanwhile, argues, "Maybe he has more badertiveness."