German Conservatives Look to Refocus and Redefine Program

Some called it a pep rally. Others said it was an opportunity to rein in discontented party members. But foremost, said Christian Democratic leaders, the first congress on party principals in 12 years, which took place in Berlin on Tuesday, was a chance to begin to reevaluate the party's platform and look to the future.

Just in time, too, according to many in politics and industry. Falling approval ratings and increasingly vociferous criticism -- even from prominent party hacks -- are leading voters to question the seemingly narrowing ideological gap between the conservatives and Social Democrats and raise the question of whether the party is imploding.

The one-day meeting's motto was "more justice through more freedom." It aimed to kick-start a year-long debate culminating in positions on such issues as the party's identity, security issues, demographic change, families and Germany's role in the EU and the world.

"Since the last time our platform was decided on, in 1994, much in the world, in our country and even in our party, has changed," said Chancellor Angela Merkel at the meeting. "These changes have to be mirrored in our program. This is a signal that the CDU is ready to deal with the questions of the 21st century -- and find answers for them."

In a nod to critics such as the moderate Christian Democratic premier of North-Rhine Westphalia, Jürgen Rüttgers, or more conservative business-minded members, Merkel reminded party members that the CDU began as, and has long been, the "people's party," a party catering to the center.

"We encompass all of Germany, we are a party for everyone," she said.

Falling poll ratings

There has not been a lot of good news recently for the ruling members of the so-called grand coalition of Christian and Social Democrats.

A recent poll had the CDU/CSU alliance holding onto first place over the Social Democrats by one percentage point: just 31 percent of those surveyed said they would vote for the conservatives in the next federal election. That is four points lower than in the September 2005 election.

Since then, critics inside the party have become more vocal. While Merkel has received praise on the foreign policy front, from her toughness on Russian President Vladimir Putin, her reconciliation with US President George Bush or her deft negations regarding the EU budget, at home, business and political leaders are questioning her policies and her style.

Lacking consistency

Business-minded party members are complaining about the health care reform package saying it increases bureaucracy and labor costs in a country already at a disadvantage because it has to compete with low wages paid in its eastern EU neighbors.

They say another example of the conservatives veering too far to the left is the widening of the social safety net: The coalition approved expanded benefits for the long-term unemployed and the "parent payment" to encourage couples to have babies.

The most vocal bashing is reserved for the 3 percent rise in the value-added tax to 19 percent when the party leadership had long called for tax reform and tax cuts to spur economic growth.

"Many CDU supporters are disappointed over the direction the party is going in," the CDU's top official in Brandenburg, Jörg Schönbohm, said in a recent interview in Bild tabloid. "Moreover, that direction is not clear or consistent."

Turning left?

The question many are asking these days is whether the party is abandoning some of its core principals in an attempt to increase approval ratings and appeal to more voters: elections in left-leaning Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania are just around the corner.

One of the first things Merkel said at the meeting Tuesday was, "down with red-red," referring to the coalition governments of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Left Party in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

Merkel won with a very small margin in September and the majority of Germans still vote left. Also, she and her conservative colleagues watched as the SPD lost one local election after another when its leader, then-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder began implementing its reform program, Agenda 2010.

That is probably why she is avoiding fights with her left-wing coalition partners and is not making the bold reforms promised while compromising more with the left than she should on policy, experts say.

Before the election, Merkel was promising far bigger and more sweeping reforms than Schröder, in an alliance with the free-market liberal Free Democratic Party, wrote Heribert Prantl, who runs the national politics desk for Süddeutsche Zeitung.

"But the conservative bloc pushing a neo-liberal agenda plummeted in the vote," he wrote. "The political caution that Merkel now demonstrates stems directly from that shock: She comprehends that Germans do not want bull-dozer style reforms."

Even so, despite a slight economic recovery and a falling unemployment rate, CDU party leaders recognize there is much to do to revamp Europe's largest economy and deal with high unemployment, sluggish growth, demographic change and globalization. The congress is a chance to take a step in a new direction, they say.

"We must travel down a new path in the future," said Ronald Pofalla, the CDU's general secretary. "We have to develop a new understanding of the concept of justice, one where solidarity and self-sufficiency are rebalanced."