Mario Voigt, the Minister-President of Thuringia and a member of the CDU, stated that he believes the ongoing discussion concerning the responsibility of CDU federal chairman and Chancellor Friedrich Merz for the recent poor local election results must come to an end. According to Voigt speaking to the “Bild-Zeitung” (Friday edition), it is “obvious-and there is no need to beat around the bush-that federal politics played a role.”
However, he added that he finds it “too simple to point fingers at individual people.” Instead, he suggested that the focus should be on the collective. “We have a federal chancellor-and that is why it is important that we collectively discuss what can be improved,” the Thuringian Minister-President continued.
Voigt believes that the Federal Chancellor and party leader himself has clearly made it known that change is necessary. He stressed that the CDU requires both a substantive, programmatic fresh start and a fundamental “change of course.” Failing to do so risks further losses to both the far-right and the far-left.
