The CDU and the East Germany - Ex-CDU Secretary General: East German experience is more useful
CDU General Secretary Mario Czaja calls for a stronger integration of Eastern German experiences given his party's stagnating poll numbers. "In many areas, Eastern Germany can serve as a role model for the transformation processes happening across the whole of Germany," the Member of Parliament writes in a book titled "How the East Saves Germany. Solutions for a New Togetherness," to be released on August 12th, one year after his dismissal by party leader Friedrich Merz.
Czaja emphasizes that he does not intend the book to be seen as a settling of scores, but rather as an assessment of the current state and a look forward with concrete solutions on how to bridge the gap between East and West. "There was and is no reason for a settling of scores," he told the German Press Agency in Berlin. Merz had replaced Czaja in July 2023 after around one and a half years with the Member of Parliament and economic expert Carsten Linnemann. There had been dissatisfaction with Czaja within the party at the time.
"Eastern Germany can save Germany," Czaja writes. In a year with state elections in Saxony, Thuringia, and Brandenburg, "in which the East again risks being portrayed in the public eye as a one-sided problem zone of the chronically ungrateful, rebellious, and latently right-wing," he wants to look critically but confidently ahead.
In terms of content, Czaja calls for a revision of his party's incompatibility resolution, which rules out cooperation with the Left Party as well as the AfD. He told "Focus" that it was wrong that the CDU in Thuringia did not talk to the Left Party about forms of cooperation after the last state election. "It didn't have to be a coalition. At the time, for example, there was the idea of forming an expert cabinet with over-partisan heads."
Czaja describes his dismissal, which he was surprised by, in detail. The initial statement prepared by Merz was a provocation for him, he writes. "No sentence about what was achieved. Mostly praise for his decision to now make the switch." He had clearly criticized this to Merz. Merz had not taken the time to reassess their shared path.
The book titled "How the East Saves Germany" by Czaja proposes that Eastern Germany can offer valuable lessons for the nation's wider transformation processes, serving as a role model in many areas. In the upcoming state elections in Saxony, Thuringia, and Brandenburg, Czaja aims to challenge the narrative of the East being a one-sided problem zone, advocating for a critical but confident outlook.
