At this year’s Germany Day of the Junge Union, the youth of the CDU/CSU party positioned itself primarily in terms of foreign policy. The new chairman is making a clear demand of the federal government.
It is the first Germany Day of the Junge Union (JU) in times of opposition for a long time. In the search for the answers of the future, the party youth is trying to position itself primarily in foreign policy. Bundeswehr, NATO, cyber security, transatlantic alliance: These are the major topics of the JU’s main proposal. Perhaps they want to convey in this way that they understand the foreign policy mistakes of the Angela Merkel era, even though they continue to struggle with the issue of coming to terms with the past.
Instead, the federal government and Chancellor Olaf Scholz prefer to be criticized. “The traffic light is probably the worst government that Germany has ever had,” said CSU boss Markus Söder in his video message on Friday evening. CDU chairman Friedrich Merz criticized on Saturday morning in his speech to the delegates in Fulda: “There is nothing, absolutely nothing, to be seen in this federal government of this willingness to lead.”
One topic that stands out in the JU’s lead motion is the demand that the full equipment of the Bundeswehr should be a condition for coalitions between the Union and other parties in the future. After the federal elections in 2013 and 2017, it was seen that the SPD got “quite a lot of left-wing projects,” said JU boss Johannes Winkel in an interview with ntv. This is also okay with compromises in a coalition, but: “You also have to say where our points and red lines are and the Bundeswehr’s equipment is reasonable.” It is “a matter of course for us that the women and men who, in case of doubt, are willing to give their lives for our freedom, are properly equipped”.
The evening before, the new Ukrainian Ambassador Oleksii Makeiev gave a speech. In the subsequent ntv interview, Makeiev spoke about Russia’s “genocidal” warfare and appealed to the federal government: “My message to all the politicians here: Please do everything to ensure that we win this war.”
The newly elected JU chairman Winkel also called on the federal government to boycott the football World Cup in Qatar. When asked if he was watching the World Cup this year, Winkel said in an ntv interview: “No. I’m against making every sport, every game, a political issue, but if – as with this World Cup – the official World Cup Ambassador says homosexuals are mentally handicapped and if three workers died for every minute played in this World Cup, then I think it’s a good reason to make it a political issue.” He added: “That’s why I urge the federal government to boycott this World Cup.”
The Germany Day of the Junge Union lasts until Sunday afternoon. On Sunday, among other things, the protests in Iran will be discussed. The human rights activist Düzen Tekkal is expected to attend.