Roland Koch (CDU) urges Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the SPD leaders Lars Klingbeil and Bärbel Bas to be willing to bet their own political futures on reforms. In a guest contribution to the Wednesday edition of the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”, the former Hessian premier argues that saving the political centre is fundamentally a question of leadership.
Koch cited Merz’s own remarks, made before his re‑election as party chair, in which he spoke candidly about pain limits and how to overcome them. “Beyond that particular mandate” Koch writes, “leaders must risk their own heads so that supporters stay on board even when the road steepens”.
The party heads and the government were elected for precisely that purpose. They should be measured by their ability to turn unpopular, painful course corrections into majority‑supported decisions during crises. This demands a willingness to endure deep wounds in the polls until the first visible positive results surface.
Koch stresses that Germany’s radicalisation can only be broken through a new promise of prosperity. He calls on the Union and SPD leadership to convene in private and craft a package that pushes both parties to the maximum pain limit-without tearing them apart. They must go far beyond their comfort zones to rescue the democratic centre, preserve prosperity, and safeguard social harmony. The negotiations should cover work‑time law, co‑decision‑making for emerging technologies, personal responsibility within social systems, relinquishing long‑held subsidies, tax reform, and taxing the highest private net incomes.
