German opposition wants to fortify alliance with Poland, France

Pushing for a geopolitical EU bloc with a stronger alliance between Germany, France and Poland, known as the Weimar Triangle, has been presented as one of the core tenets of the new manifesto of Germany’s opposition CDU, which seeks to take over the government after the next federal election in October 2025.

On Monday, the leadership of Germany’s largest opposition party presented its official proposal for a first manifesto overhaul since 2007, promising to make the EU a stronger global actor grounded in enhanced coordination with Germany’s neighbours.

“We are currently facing a huge opportunity in Europe, as the two other major countries in the heart of Europe are governed by pro-European leaders with Emmanuel Macron in France and probably Donald Tusk in Poland,” Daniel Caspary, the CDU’s lead MEP in the EU Parliament, told Euractiv. Tusk was made prime minister of Poland after the quote from Caspary was received.

It is now high time to “revitalise the ‘Weimar Triangle’ so that we have once again decisive, pro-European majorities in the European Parliament and the European Council”, he added.

The Weimar Triangle was created in the 1990s to promote coordination between three countries at the European level but has so far only existed in the form of meetings between the respective leaders and has failed to develop into a significant power base.

While the current government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz has pledged to revive the forum and foster closer ties with Poland, these attempts have largely failed – a state of affairs Caspary says is partly due to the current coalition’s “abysmal” EU policies.

EU only a sideshow

With this new manifesto, the CDU is trying to reclaim the mantle of driving EU integration, claiming, as it did in 2007, to be “Germany’s European party”.

“There is no European politics at all under the [current] ‘traffic light’ coalition, and that is also the perception in Europe – there is only horror and frustration about Germany right now,” Caspary added.

But for the CDU, EU matters also appear to have slipped down the list of priorities, with only two pages devoted to the issue – 3% of the party’s manifesto, compared to 8% in 2007 – to which Caspary explained that peoples’ priorities are currently elsewhere, noting that “people have other problems”.

However, the clear commitment to more European integration marks a departure from the 2007 manifesto, which reflected the spirit of stalling momentum and rising Euroscepticism in the early 2000s.

Instead of pushing for deeper EU integration, the previous manifesto called for the option to “return some competencies to the member states”.

Transferring competencies to the EU

At the same time, the CDU’s new proposal suggests the EU could be the answer to external and global challenges, such as international security, competitiveness, climate change and migration.

“Against the backdrop of increasing international systemic competition and the ongoing formation of blocs, (…) the EU must become a geopolitical and global political player,” the proposal reads.

It thus advocates for “a transfer of competencies to the EU where useful”, including majority decision-making to replace unanimity in EU foreign and security policy.

However, in the face of concrete security threats from Russia, the new proposal also dropped long-term visions such as a European army in favour of more short-term goals, such as closing “the serious capability gaps (…) with joint European defence projects within ten years”.

Regarding its fiscal and migration policies, the CDU remains conservative, as the paper clearly takes a stance against common EU debt and a more radical Rwanda-style migration policy that would see those entitled to asylum accommodated in third countries outside the EU.

As the party is currently leading the German polls, the CDU is eyeing a return to power two years after the departure of former CDU chancellor Angela Merkel.

“Germany’s CDU is ready to govern again,” Carsten Linnemann, the CDU’s general secretary who had been presiding over the manifesto process, claimed at the proposal’s presentation on Monday, adding that if there were a snap general election, the CDU would be prepared.

The draft manifesto will be amended and voted on by the party leadership and a party conference next year.

(Nick Alipour | Euractiv.de)

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