Frei assures Merz of the support of the Union group

The leader of the Union parliamentary group, Frei, sees an "enormous need for debate" after the CDU election debacle. In an interview with Tagesthemen, he supports Chancellor Merz - although there was clear criticism at the group meeting. At the first meeting of the Union Group after the departure of the CDU from the state parliament in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the chairman of the Union Group in the Bundestag, Thorsten Frei, once again stood behind Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz. At today's meeting of the Union Group, there was an "enormous need for discussion and debate," Frei said in an interview with Tagesthemen.

Nevertheless, the Chancellor has the support of parliamentarians. At the meeting, Merz himself conceded joint responsibility for the election results. As on Monday, he spoke of "disastrous results". Freely stressed that anyone who suffered such an electoral defeat had to deal with the consequences.

This process has not yet been completed. It should be noted that other parties in the past elections in Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin were also elected on the basis of their issues. The Union still had to find answers here - even if these answers looked different from those of the "radicals from left and right", Frei stressed. Changes to reform plans?

In recent weeks, there had been clear criticism of the reform course of the federal government under Merz. Above all, the opposition and coalition partners SPD had called for improvements, for example in the pension or care reform. These issues had also occupied people significantly in the elections. Frei stated that he did not believe that people would not vote for the CDU "because we are making too many reforms".

You just don't see the successes in person yet. "People need to feel that things are moving forward". When asked about the pension reform, the head of the Union parliamentary group said that there remained "individual questions that need to be formulated". Representatives of both coalition partners, both from the SPD and the Union, met in the evening for further discussions on the subject of reforms.

But the basis is already the agreement within the coalition "that we want to implement this package as a whole". "Full backing" for Merz It is now the responsibility of the Union Group to "bring stability to the coalition," Frei stressed. In the morning, the new faction manager Catarina dos Santos-Wintz had already said that the Chancellor had the "full backing of the Union faction". However, there was also open criticism of Merz and his communication in the debate of the group - especially from former group leader Ralph Brinkhaus, who received a lot of applause for his speech, according to participants.

Ex-Secretary General calls for resignation of the Chancellor Among the Merz critics is also CDU ex-Secretary General Mario Czaja, who demanded the immediate resignation of the Chancellor on the television channel Welt. “It's time for him to clear the space. It doesn't work with him anymore. Giving him time doesn't make any sense," says Czaja.