Friedrich Merz and Kai Wegner: pretty much best party enemies

A row in the CDU - Friedrich Merz and Kai Wegner: pretty much best party enemies

The relationship between Kai Wegner and Friedrich Merz shows just how short political half-lives are. Not even four years ago, Wegner, then head of the CDU in Berlin, was considered one of the Sauerland native's most loyal musketeers.

Back then, in spring 2020, when Friedrich Merz ran for the chairmanship of the federal party for the second time. Against Armin Laschet and Norbert Röttgen. Wegner was the first state chairman to back Merz and was also taking a personal risk. He sensed "a very clear mood" in his favor, Wegner said of Merz.

Merz defended Wegner in Neukölln

The thanks followed three years later. At the beginning of 2023, Wegner came under suspicion of racism shortly before the repeat election for the Berlin House of Representatives: after the riots on New Year's Eve in Neukölln, his parliamentary group wanted to find out the first names of the suspects. Merz made a demonstrative appearance together with Wegner in Neukölln.

Tempi passati, times gone by. Today, the two companions are deeply at odds and no longer talk to each other, only about each other.

The preliminary highlight was Friedrich Merz's speech in the Bundestag on Tuesday. The CDU/CSU parliamentary group leader used the debate on the budget crisis to take a swipe not only at the Federal Chancellor, but also at the Governing Mayor of Berlin. "Decisions are made in the German Bundestag and not in Berlin City Hall," said Merz with regard to the debate on the debt brake. A few days earlier, Wegner had been the first CDU governor to call for a softening. In return, Merz declared him a small provincial prince with no expertise. A public humiliation could not be worse.

What on earth has happened? Merz and Wegner have known each other for many years, from their earlier time together in the Bundestag. They are not only on first-name terms. Politically, they also belong to the same conservative camp. What has driven the two party friends so far apart? Or rather, what turned them against each other?

"A political assassination attempt"

Anyone looking for clues will hear different versions.

One goes like this: In autumn 2022, opposition leader Kai Wegner was preparing for the re-run of the Berlin House of Representatives election when a rumor started doing the rounds. Merz and his then CDU Secretary General Mario Czaja had campaigned internally for former Health Minister Jens Spahn to run in Berlin. Wegner would have no chance anyway. His CDU only came a distant second behind the SPD in the actual 2021 election. Looking back, one CDU insider called the alleged move a "political assassination attempt".

Wegner sticks to his renewed candidacy and wins the following election with a lead of almost ten percentage points. But the feud is not over. In September 2023, Merz declared at the Gillamoos, a legendary Bavarian folk festival, that the notorious Berlin district of Kreuzberg was "not Germany", unlike the Gillamoos. And in doing so, he is stabbing his Berlin party colleague in the back, who has to hold his own in a politically left-wing city.

The unfortunate third party

The other version goes like this: The attempt to oust Wegner as the top candidate for Berlin comes from Berlin CDU politician Mario Czaja, with whom Wegner is said to share a deep enmity dating back to his days in the Junge Union. Wegner was correspondingly unenthusiastic when Merz made Czaja CDU General Secretary in 2022.

However, according to this version, Merz had nothing to do with the Berlin intrigue surrounding Wegner's top candidacy and immediately distanced himself from the rumor. Wegner, however, still kept on putting his foot down.

It is true that Merz also got himself into a lot of trouble within the party in the summer when he hinted at the possibility of municipal cooperation with the AfD in a summer interview. And that Wegner was once again the first CDU state leader to comment on the matter. Only this time not to support him. "The CDU cannot, will not and will not work with a party whose business model is hatred, division and exclusion," Wegner tweeted immediately at the time. And hinted that Merz is not yet set as the CDU's candidate for chancellor ("will play a decisive role in the talks"). Bavarian Minister President Markus Söder, whose candidacy for chancellor Wegner had already campaigned for in 2021, will have been pleased.

There is growing unrest in the party over the row

With Merz, however, the cloth was probably cut from that moment at the latest. Especially as Merz is known to be extremely vindictive. The fact that Wegner recently questioned the debt brake in stern magazine, even though Merz had recently made this his guiding principle, is just another footnote in the dispute.

There are said to have been attempts at a debate. However, Wegner refused, according to party circles. He stayed away from the meeting of the CDU executive committee at the beginning of the week and also failed to appear at a Bundesrat dinner of the Union states.

In theory, Wegner and Merz do not need each other. One is measured by his success in Berlin and only by that. The other knows that the former is not well connected in federal politics and is hardly in a position to start a riot.

But because the dispute is damaging the party's reputation, internal unrest is growing. The row is "unnecessary from both sides", according to one of them. Negotiators are therefore trying to mediate between the quarrelling parties. With initial success: on Wednesday, Merz announced during an interview on ntv that he wanted to talk to Wegner in the next few days. According to Merz, they have agreed to meet. His entourage is keeping quiet about where and when the reconciliation meeting is to take place. The two will probably no longer be best friends. But if they were no longer pretty much best party enemies, a lot would have been gained for the CDU.