CDU's Focus on Communication Masks Fear of Losing Power

The German CDU party's reaction to the recent cabinet reshuffle is characterized as overly focused on communication missteps, overshadowing substantive policy debates. The article argues that this preoccupation with the Chancellor's communicative weaknesses reveals a deeper anxiety within the party, suggesting they are beginning to grasp that governing is no longer an automatic right. This nervousness, the author posits, leads the party to become excessively self-absorbed.

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The ultimate criticism of Friedrich Merz is that he has hurt feelings.

The author points to the reaction of a dismissed minister, who is portrayed as offended and self-important, and state politicians canceling meetings with the Chancellor. The dismissal of a state secretary from Saxony-Anhalt is even framed as an acceptance of defeat in the East. The ultimate criticism leveled against Friedrich Merz, the party leader, is that he has "hurt feelings." The article questions this focus, stating that when the sensitivities of a state parliamentary group take precedence over the success of a pension reform, the political compass has shifted.

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If the sensitivities of a state parliamentary group are more important than the question of whether a pension reform has been successful and is sustainable, then the political standard has slipped.

Political reporting, the piece suggests, often fixates on communicative flaws, making the "amateurishness" of the Chancellery an easy target for commentary that demands little more than good advice. Berlin's political environment tends to view politics as a purely communicative exercise, debating who should have called whom or how a personnel decision could have been presented more elegantly. However, the article argues that these legitimate questions do not explain why a simple organizational error is treated as a state crisis, as seen in parts of the CDU.

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The Berlin operation tends anyway to view politics as a purely communicative exercise.

While other government leaders have made more significant organizational blunders without their parties triggering a confidence crisis, the CDU's current reaction signals a fear of losing its perceived hereditary right to power. The article concludes that the party is concerned about its standing in the eyes of voters, indicating a shift from a time when Angela Merkel might have avoided such errors, to a present where the party sees these as harbingers of a new reality where power is no longer guaranteed.

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The Union has not leased the power.