Merkel's brave step: the break with cabbage that shook the CDU!

Merkel's brave step: the break with cabbage that shook the CDU!

Bonn, Deutschland - On December 22, 1999, a political earthquake in Germany, which the CDU shook. Angela Merkel, then Secretary General of the CDU, put a shock-like "divorce letter" to former Chancellor Helmut Kohl in the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung", in which she stated that the processes recognized by Kohl had caused considerable damage. This sentence not only represented Merkel's bold "all in", but also marked the break with her former mentor, who had dominated the Union for years. This procedure happened shortly before a crucial meeting of the CDU Presidium, in which the difficult allegations from the donation affair were to be advised, the cabbage plunged into a credibility crisis that could hardly be overcome, such as Welt reported .

guise of deception

The donation affair, which made headlines in the weeks before, threw a shadow on the CDU financial practice. Helmut Kohl admitted that they had accepted up to two million marks of cash donations between 1993 and 1998 without making the message to the responsible bodies. While Kohl was not accused of personal enrichment, illegal party finance was a severe burden for the integrity of the party. Angela Merkel called for a comprehensive examination of the allegations and clearly manifested her own will to clarify, which almost looked like an act of liberation from cabbage. This meant that it was elected as the new party chairman just a few months later on April 10, 2000 when the CDU was in a political pile of shards, such as wikipedia gives an overview .

In the following years it became clear how crucial this day was for Merkel's political career. Your article became the initial spark for the realignment of the CDU and initiated the end of an era. Kohl, who refused to reveal the names of the large donors until the end, was confronted with fate that his time as the undisputed party leader came to an abrupt end. Merkel spoke of the need for the party, regardless of her former "slaughterhouse", and pointed out the challenges of the future. She separated this clear positioning from the old structures and initiated her rise to the dominant political figure of the CDU when the nation needed a new order.