EIt was 7:28 p.m. on Wednesday evening when Friedrich Merz said the M-word. It will be the only time this evening in the Congress Center in Hanover that the CDU chairman will utter the name of the former Chancellor. It will be the only time that her name will be audibly mentioned in the two and a half hours in which the CDU leadership in the Lower Saxony state capital will discuss the party’s new basic program with their guests. This should be passed at the party conference in early May.
Merz embeds the name of his – at least former – political enemy well, he only mentions it in passing. At least no one can say they didn’t say it. The rhetorical construction he chooses is not unusual. Merz recalls the speech by the Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday after the start of the Russian war against Ukraine. In order to increase the height of the fall for the man whose office Merz has his sights set on, he lifts Scholz onto a pedestal. On February 27, 2022, the Chancellor made “an incredibly moving, good, internationally recognized government statement.” A government statement from the “Chancellor of the third largest economy in the world and the largest country in the European Union”. So that should be enough as a base.
#Merkel #Merkel