Laumann counters CDA criticism of cabinet lineup

Laumann counters CDA criticism of cabinet lineup dpa • 31 minutes 2 minutes read Deputy CDU chairman Karl-Josef Laumann rejects the harsh criticism from the party's employee wing of party leader Friedrich Merz's cabinet list. "I'm satisfied with it because he's put together a good cabinet," the North Rhine-Westphalia labor minister told the "Rheinische Post." Laumann led the Christian Democratic Employees' Association (CDA) for 19 years until last year. His successor, Dennis Radtke, had strongly criticized the selection of CDU ministers. "I've only ever known a federal government without the participation of the CDA when the CDU was in opposition," Radtke told the "Süddeutsche Zeitung." He "finds it strange and wrong that no representative of our party's Christian-socialist roots is part of the cabinet – that has never happened from Adenauer to Merkel." The deficits in its social profile have plagued the CDU for many years and contributed to the public perception of the party as cold-hearted and antisocial in many areas, even though the welfare state in its current form was shaped by Christian Democrats, Radtke explained. Laumann said it was true that the party's employee wing had not been taken into account. "But I don't believe that those currently in the cabinet are the servants of the middle class," he emphasized. Moreover, the coalition agreement is more important. It is also important that the future government has a "good internal climate." The CDU and CSU announced the appointments to the ministries they will fill on Monday. The SPD will not announce who it will send to the cabinet until next Monday. Merz is expected to be elected Chancellor one day later. Thorsten Frei (CDU), who is currently the First Parliamentary Secretary of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, is to become Minister of the Chancellery. Competence is crucial Frei also dismissed criticism of Merz's cabinet composition. He told the "Rheinische Post" newspaper that the CDU/CSU's eastern state associations were particularly well represented, with an economics minister from Brandenburg, as well as several state secretaries and a state minister. Other CDU/CSU state associations were "significantly less represented in percentage terms" in relation to the number of residents or party members, Frei emphasized. He added: "In the end, it all comes down to competence, it all depends on whether the overall fit is right."