In Berlin, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) gathered for its federal party convention on Monday, with party leader Friedrich Merz opening the event a few minutes late in the afternoon. The brief, five-hour meeting is aimed at launching the intense phase of the election campaign for the Bundestag elections.
At the core of the party’s agenda is the “Immediate Program” which, in the event of a victory, will be implemented without delay. The focus is on economic issues, with nine of the 15 individual points centered on this complex. The plan includes reducing the electricity tax and network charges, lowering the value-added tax on restaurant meals and halving the number of government-appointed officials. The CDU also plans to abolish the heat law of the previous government and reintroduce agricultural diesel refunds.
The second area of the “Immediate Program” deals with migration and security issues. The CDU promises to introduce the storage of IP addresses to combat child sexual abuse, implement electronic ankle bracelets for violent offenders against women and repeal the cannabis law.
The five-point plan of Merz to combat illegal migration and the so-called “Zustrombegrenzungsgesetz” are also included in the “Immediate Program.” Both initiatives had caused a stir in the previous week, as the CDU had, in a Bundestag vote, accepted a majority with the AfD. A resolution on the five-point plan was ultimately adopted, while the law narrowly failed.
In the aftermath, the CDU faced harsh criticism from the SPD, Greens and Left, as well as protests across Germany. Over 160,000 people demonstrated in Berlin on Sunday against right-wing extremism and for a clear distancing from the AfD, with the procession ending in front of the CDU’s party headquarters. Protests also took place at the fringes of the CDU party convention.
In addition to the adoption of the “Immediate Program” the party convention will feature several speeches, including a 20-minute greeting from CSU leader Markus Söder and the programmatic speech from Merz, the CDU’s chancellor candidate.