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🇩🇪 Germany /Elections & Politics

Merz calls for CDU debate on fairness between generations

From Die Zeit · () German

Translated from German and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Chancellor and CDU leader Friedrich Merz urged his party to develop a new political direction after September’s state elections, centered on greater fairness between generations.
  • Merz linked the issue to economic and environmental burdens on younger people, including climate change, and acknowledged that he was dissatisfied with the Union’s polling numbers.
  • He again rejected the far-right AfD and said Germany would not allow ethnic nationalism to return.

Friedrich Merz wants the CDU to find a new political narrative after the state elections, and he says its central idea should be prosperity shared across generations.

Prosperity for all generations

· Friedrich MerzMerz proposed this as the CDU’s new guiding phrase for a politics focused on fairness between generations.

Speaking at a CDU campaign event in Langenhagen near Hanover, the chancellor proposed replacing the party’s familiar phrase, “Prosperity for all,” with “Prosperity for all generations.” He said the CDU needed to discuss where it wanted to go after the elections. Party members from Lower Saxony gave him a standing ovation, and Merz defended the party’s current direction while calling for a stronger focus on younger and future generations.

Merz said today’s consumption leaves the younger generation without the opportunities it deserves, both economically and environmentally. He asked how Germany could achieve balance between generations and explicitly described forest fires in North Rhine-Westphalia as consequences of climate change. He also said he was unhappy with the Union’s polling performance. The party, he argued, must respond to public perceptions that the state no longer performs its duties and that politicians no longer listen. “A subjective feeling is an objective factor for politics,” he said.

I want us in the CDU to discuss this question together after the state elections.

· Friedrich MerzHe called for an internal party debate about the CDU’s future direction.

The speech also carried a sharp warning to the AfD, delivered one day before the state election in Saxony-Anhalt. Merz said Germany would never again permit “ethnic nationalism.” He referred to Saxony-Anhalt AfD leader Martin Reichardt, who recently used an insulting description of the state, and said people like him must not be allowed to destroy Germany.

A subjective feeling is an objective factor for politics.

· Friedrich MerzHe said the party must take seriously public perceptions that the state and politicians are failing.

Merz has faced criticism inside his own party over the planned pension reform. The state premiers of Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony opposed the proposed end of penalty-free early retirement after 45 years of contributions at the end of July.

We will never again allow ethnic nationalism in Germany.

· Friedrich MerzMerz used the statement to distance the CDU from the AfD before the Saxony-Anhalt state election.
About this summary

Originally published by Die Zeit in German. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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