The youngest CDU member of the German Bundestag, Catarina dos Santos-Wintz, perceives an age and gender issue within the party.
“We have some older gentlemen in our party” said the 30-year-old, who has been a member of the Bundestag since 2021, in an interview with the Watson news portal. Although she is an exception, dos Santos-Wintz emphasized that the party is working to have more young women join in the future, especially.
When asked to identify a statement about the CDU that is not just a cliché but actually true, dos Santos-Wintz explained the high age average of the Union by saying that the conservatives “often come to the Bundestag through direct mandates” and as a result, the representatives “stay in the Bundestag for a longer period of time” due to this. Consequently, the complete composition of the Bundestag is not altered at every election.
The average age of all members of the Bundestag at the start of the legislative period in 2021 was 47.3 years. The AfD had the highest average age at 51.0 years, followed by the Left Party (50.2) and the CDU (49.5).