In all likelihood, the Berlin CDU will go into the federal elections with its former boss Monika Grütters at the top. On a proposal for the state list that was finally agreed in the state executive on Friday evening, the state minister for culture is in first place.
That is exactly what Kai Wegner had promised her, chairman of the Berlin CDU since 2019 and his party’s top candidate for the House of Representatives election, immediately after the two of them changed power. Inside the party there is talk of a “deal”, after all, Grütters would have liked to keep the post she had taken on only three years earlier.
The 59-year-old is running – unlike in the three previous legislative periods – not in Marzahn-Hellersdorf, but in Reinickendorf. The change of power in the regional association had robbed the local heroes Frank Steffel of his prospects. His time in the Bundestag, which began in 2009, will end at the end of September; the Grütters, who entered the Bundestag for the first time in 2005, will belong to it for at least one further legislative period.
Jan-Marco Luczak, who has been chairman of the currently six-member Berlin CDU regional group since April 2018, is running for second place on the state list. Luczak, who works as a lawyer in addition to his mandate, is an expert in tenancy law and the driving force behind the successful legal action brought by the CDU and FDP against the rent cap. Luczak won his constituency in Tempelhof-Schöneberg directly in the last three federal elections. The protection on the state list is considered safe, even if its district association with Hildegard Bentele is already the only EU member of the Berlin CDU.
According to the proposal of the state executive committee, third place goes to Ottilie Klein, who was elected as a direct candidate in the middle. Klein is currently the member representative of the regional association and is a close confidante of Wegner. Because Klein has not yet sat in any parliament and has only known the company as an employee of the parliamentary group, internally there is talk of a “meteoric rise”. Nevertheless, there should not be a fight candidate against Klein, also because the CDU under Wegner had to become more and more feminine. Currently there is only one woman among the six members of the CDU in the Bundestag – Monika Grütters.
According to the information, the candidacy for the promising fourth place on the list promises excitement. As a result, Thomas Heilmann, proposed by the state executive, former Justice Senator of the city and member of the Bundestag since 2017, can at least not be one hundred percent sure of his nomination by the 235 delegates.
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The reason for this are the ambitions of his former Senate colleague Mario Czaja. The former health senator and in the course of the vaccination campaign as President of the German Red Cross in Berlin omnipresent Czaja is preparing to secure his direct candidacy in Marzahn-Hellersdorf via the state list and there via one of the first five places on the list. Czaja did not want to confirm on Friday that he will run in fourth place and against the Heilmann, who is not very popular in his party. Within the party, it is firmly expected and the outcome of the duel is assessed as open.
Czaja’s argument that in the event of a defeat only one of the promising places on the list would go to an East Berlin district association is opposed to the place of the board for Heilmann. In fact, Czaja, of all people, advertised Heilmann in 2017 after he lacked the majority in the dispute with Klaus-Dieter Gröhler for third place on the list. A vote against Heilmann, which had already been proposed by the state executive at that time, could weaken the chairwoman Monika Grütters, Czaja had said at the time. This reasoning could now turn against him.
Claudia Pechstein takes on Gregor Gysi
Gröhler, who recently came under pressure in his own district association, is running in fifth place on the list. Claudia Pechstein, who was surprisingly nominated in Treptow-Köpenick on Thursday, follows in 6th place. She is running against Gregor Gysi (left), enjoys Wegner’s support and ousted Manuela Anders-Granitzki from Pankow. According to a first proposal published by the board on Monday, she was listed in 6th place, replacing Niels Korte, who last stepped down from the candidacy.
Behind them is Christina Schwarzer, the direct candidate of the CDU Neukölln. In view of the latest polls for the Union, its entry into the Bundestag, just like that of Pechstein, is more than questionable. The party conference takes place hybrid A digital vote in the morning is followed by an analog vote in the afternoon.
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