CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATS LAUNCH DISCUSSION OF NEW BASIC

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BERLIN 000477

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/21/2021
TAGS: PGOV GM
SUBJECT: CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATS LAUNCH DISCUSSION OF NEW BASIC
PROGRAM


Classified By: Acting Political Counselor John Lister. Reason: 1.4(b)
and (d)

Summary
--------------


1. (U) Under the slogan "New Justice Through More Freedom,"
Chancellor Merkel hosted a mini-covention of the Christian
Democratic Union (CDU) on February 21 to launch the
development of a new Basic Program for the party. Merkel
emphasized the many challenges not addressed in the 1994
Basic Program (e.g., integration, globalization, and global
terrorism) and the need to take a new look at issues such as
education and family support. At the convention, also billed
as a "Values Congress," there were also repeated references
to the Christian values that form the basis of the "leading
culture" ("Leitkultur"),an expression mistrusted on the left
and likely to fuel further resentment among German Muslims.
The party hopes that the development of a new Basic Program
will help distinguish the party from the SPD as well as
develop a common internal position on issues where party
leaders' views diverge. The CDU hopes to complete the new
program by the end of 2007. At this stage, we see no issues
on the horizon likely to badly divide the party or slow
development of the new program. End Summary

New General-Secretary
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2. (U) The first order of business was the confirmation in
office of the new CDU General-Secretary, Ronald Pofalla, to
which 76 of the 79 delegates (nearly all nationally prominent
party leaders) agreed. Pofalla replaced former Volker
Kauder. In his speech, Pofalla stressed that he intended to
promote both the CDU as the party of the center and the
centrality of cutting unemployment in the party's strategy.
Turning to the theme of the day, he suggested that the SPD
did not share the Christian values of the CDU and that this
had a practical effect in politics. The SPD, he said,
reduced freedom to a matter of state-administered
socio-economic justice. The CDU believed that justice
required reducing the role of the state because freedom also
entailed facilitating individual and national achievement.

Values Commissioner Boehr
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3. (U) Christoph Boehr, the CDU's candidate for
Minster-President in Rhineland-Palatinate has also been
designated Chairman of the CDU's "Values Commission,"
delivered an address in which he maintained the identity of
Christian values with European ones and that these formed the
basis of Germany's "Leitkultur" or "leading culture." This
culture was based on the inviolable dignity of the
individual, a value which, Boehr said, not all other
religions share. Boehr returned to this general point
repeatedly. On a more political level, he argued that social
justice now was not a question of distribution of material
benefits, but of providing equal developmental opportunities
to all. On the margins, Poloff questioned a party contact
about the thinly veiled criticism of Islam and Muslim
culture. This contact did not deny Poloff's interpretation,
and placed Boehr's speech firmly in the context of Boehr's
election campaign.

Chancellor Merkel
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4. (U) The Chancellor's speech focused on specific political
issues which, in her view, needed to be evaluated or
re-visited in the light of the specific challenges of a
globalized world, albeit on the basis of long-standing
values. Responding to the rise of political Islam and of
terrorism were two challenges the party had not addressed in

1994. The party also must re-visit the reasons for its
support for further deepening of the EU: simply asserting
that the EU had made Europe peaceful was no longer
sufficient. The bulk of her speech, however, was focused on
domestic economic and social concerns. She placed the
development of the individual and of his/her right to
participate in society at the center of politics. It was not
the task of politics, she pointedly said, to make everyone
equal. As examples of policies that would implement this
view, she spoke of the need for strong protection of
intellectual property rights; lowering barriers to hiring the
unemployed; increased competition - and not just in the
economy, but also in education and in German federalism; and
reform of the tax system. Merkel rejected the idea of
tension between freedom and social solidarity because, she
argued, the Christian ethic taught that the former must be
used to further the latter.

BERLIN 00000477 002 OF 002



Comment
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5. (C) The CDU and SPD are now both engaged in writing new
programs, and largely for the same reason: to ensure/restore
party unity and to ensure the party's distinct identity in
the public. Contacts in both parties acknowledge that Basic
Programs have little direct electoral value, but they will
lay the groundwork for what both parties acknowledge will be
a head-to-head campaign in 2009 (if not sooner). In the
meantime, despite the occasional pointed barbs, Post does not
see the CDU's project as a danger to the functioning or
stability of the coalition. End Comment.
TIMKEN JR