Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) holds Chancellor Angela Merkel indirectly responsible for the difficult state of the Union in the Bundestag election campaign. Schäuble attributes the “close race” between CDU / CSU and SPD to Merkel’s decision in October 2018 to give up the CDU chairmanship, but to remain in office as head of government until the end of the electoral term.
“I am firmly convinced that both belong in one hand: party chairmanship and chancellery. This has not been the case for almost three years, and therefore there is no official bonus. On the contrary, ”said Schäuble to the Tagesspiegel.
CDU boss and candidate for Chancellor Armin Laschet is standing “next to the long-standing successful Chancellor” and in the election campaign could neither say “we’re doing everything new” nor “we’ll just keep doing it”. After 16 years as Chancellor of Angela Merkel, this is “a problem” for his party and “may not be understood by everyone”.
The relationship between Wolfgang Schäuble and Angela Merkel can be described as professionally distant. Both appreciate each other. Schäuble is also considered to be a former sponsor of Angela Merkel. He made her general secretary of his party in 1998 and supported her candidacy for party leadership in 2000.
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During Merkel’s chancellorship, however, there were always differences of opinion between the two, which were sometimes more, sometimes less publicly. In 2018, shortly before Merkel announced her decision to resign as party leader and not to run as candidate for chancellor again, Schäuble questioned Merkel’s power. “It is no longer undisputed,” he said at the time.
Schäuble had supported Laschet against Söder
In the fight for the candidacy for chancellor between CDU boss Laschet and CSU chairman Markus Söder, Schäuble had interfered decisively in favor of Laschet. However, he was previously on the question of who should take over the CDU chairmanship at all, on the side of Friedrich Merz, who lost to Laschet.
The outcome of the election next Sunday also depends on whether Wolfgang Schäuble himself has another chance of becoming President of the Bundestag. He can imagine that himself. “I am very happy to be President of the Bundestag,” explained Schäuble. To do this, however, the Union would have to become the strongest parliamentary group.
[Lesen Sie hier das Interview mit Bundestagspräsident Wolfgang Schäuble im Wortlaut: „Da wird mir bange“ (T+)]
But at the moment it looks more like the Union is threatened with a historically poor performance. In current surveys, the Union is just over 20 percent and the SPD three to four percentage points ahead of it. Although Laschet was able to catch up a bit in the ARD Germany trend at the end of the week, the ZDF and Tagesspiegel political barometer did not show any major movement on the Sunday issue.
Schäuble worries about the size of the next Bundestag
But Schäuble is not only worried about the performance of the Union, but also about the possible sharp increase in the number of MPs in the coming legislative period. “I’m worried about the size of the next Bundestag,” he said. At some point, “the ability of the Bundestag to work as a whole will be jeopardized”.
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The fact that it was not possible to resolve an effective reform of the electoral law in the current legislative period was one of his “greatest political disappointments”. An even larger Bundestag would not be conducive to the reputation of parliament and parliamentarism.
There are calculations that the Bundestag could grow to more than 1000 members. This would mean that only the Chinese People’s Congress would be larger worldwide.
