In a few weeks, the women’s quota is to be decided for the first time at the CDU party conference – albeit for a limited time. Chairman Friedrich Merz explains his change of heart on the subject and reveals when the candidate for chancellor must be resolved in his party.
FOCUS online: Mr. Merz, you want to enforce the women’s quota at the federal party conference in Hanover, but the base is already rebelling. How concerned are you?
Friedrich Merz: There are supporters and critics. My impression is that even among the critics there is a growing willingness to try out a quota, at least as I have proposed, for five years. And I expect a majority for that.
You propose fifty percent women for party executives from the district level. At the same time you speak of a “second best solution”. Are you for it or against it?
Friedrich Merz: I am in favor of trying this solution out now because our previous attempts have not been satisfactory. Critics and supporters agree that we have a problem. And that is: The CDU has too few women as members, the CDU has too few women in offices and managerial positions, the CDU has – as a result – too few women as voters. We have to solve this problem.
So you are less concerned with the party than with the next election?
Friedrich Merz: I am primarily concerned with the future viability of our party. To do this, they have to convince the citizens of themselves. And without women, we won’t win any more elections in Germany.
Why do you want to limit the quota to five years?
Friedrich Merz: Because we can then evaluate whether the quota is the right way and whether it suits the CDU.
This means that if you are chancellor after the next federal election, it may well be that the attractive women’s quota will soon be gone again.
Friedrich Merz: We’re trying it out now. And then we will see everything else.
The resistance is still great. Gitta Connemann, chairwoman of the SME and Economic Union, speaks of a “debate at the wrong time”. How do you answer that?
Friedrich Merz: The CDU has been working on changing its statutes for two and a half years now. However, this can only be voted on in person – and Hanover will be the first face-to-face party conference since 2019.
Astrid Hamker, President of the Economic Council of the CDU, says: “In essence, all quotas are a left-wing, unbourgeois concept.” RCDS Chairwoman Franca Bauernfeind: “A women’s quota is rigid and not a step forward.” What is your substantive argument?
Friedrich Merz: If we want to change something, then we have to approach our structures. Women are still underrepresented in our party.
And how do you answer the women who stand up at the party congress and demand: “Don’t make me a quota woman”?
Friedrich Merz: I will say to them: You are not quota women. You are an important part of this party, and I wish that more women would agree to take on responsibility in the CDU.
Isn’t there a risk of disappointing the people in the party you really wanted to lead? For example the Mittelstands-Union and the Junge Union.
Friedrich Merz: As party chairman, I was not elected for or against the quota. It is now up for debate and we must now vote on it.
The CDU no longer has a single state chairman, only a general secretary and a parliamentary group chairman. How did it get to the point where the “last big people’s party”, as your predecessor Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer once called the CDU, no longer appeals to women?
Friedrich Merz: I don’t accept that as a general rule. Yes, we do not reach women to the necessary extent. But I stick to my conviction that this is not only about “statutory arithmetic”, but above all about our topics. We have to do both: We have to become more attractive again, especially for young people – and of course also for women. They should find it exciting and discuss it with the CDU. My impression is that people in Germany have other concerns. For the CDU, too, the topic is just one of many.
But it’s a particularly interesting one in relation to you personally.
Friedrich Merz: That may be the case. Perhaps it was surprising that I voted for it. But I stand by the fact that we close this discussion now. And the party has a right to know what its leader thinks about it.
With only 26 percent women among the members, would there be enough female candidates to compete for the quota positions?
Friedrich Merz: If the women don’t stand for election, then of course they won’t be elected either. But of course we hope to attract more women to the Union and get them to work for us.
CSU boss Markus Söder once failed with the introduction of the women’s quota in his party. Have you already consulted?
Friedrich Merz: I talk to him regularly. It’s a bit of a trauma for him (laughs). I hope that we as the CDU will be spared that.
Assuming the quota falls through at the party conference: Are you then relieved or worried because your CDU is unable to clear up this dispute?
Friedrich Merz: Neither one nor the other. I’m sorry But we will then have to step up our efforts elsewhere to achieve the goal.
But if you do, that might get you a few nods from the AfD in the 2025 federal election, but the CDU would be the party that rejected the quota. Aren’t you worried?
Friedrich Merz: The AfD is not relevant for us.
The SPD put forward a chancellor candidate early on before the 2021 federal elections, while the Union got off to a chaotic start to the election year and committed to Armin Laschet late. By when does the Union want to clarify the K question for the upcoming federal elections?
Friedrich Merz: If I assume that the election period will run normally, which is really not a matter of course after all the technical mistakes made by the Chancellor in recent weeks, then we are talking about an election at the end of 2025. If it comes earlier, we are prepared. The quarrels of 2020 and 2021 will not be repeated in the Union.
At the end of 2020 you were a candidate for the presidency and complained that the establishment at the time wanted to prevent you.
Friedrich Merz: At the time, it wasn’t about me as a person. We hadn’t made a decision for the whole of 2020. Then we stumbled into 2021, still with the question of who will be party leader. Finally, in February, we had a CDU leader, but no candidate for chancellor. And the way things went in the end, the federal election could only go wrong. The Union has internalized this experience and it will not be repeated.
Does that mean you will choose the Union’s candidate for chancellor in the summer of 2024?
Friedrich Merz: We want to discuss our basic program in 2023 and decide on it at a large party congress before the European elections in 2024. At some point after that, we will deal with the candidacy for chancellor.
If the approval ratings don’t change by then – will you then clear the field for a party colleague?
Friedrich Merz: I’m thinking about a lot at the moment, but not about this personnel issue.
But who leads is not irrelevant.
Friedrich Merz: Sure, but the most important point is to bring the Union back close to the Federal Chancellery. And we’ve come a long way along the way.
