VZCZCXRO3930
RR RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHROV RUEHSR
DE RUEHRL #0477/01 0521626
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 211626Z FEB 06
FM AMEMBASSY BERLIN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1621
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUCNFRG/FRG COLLECTIVE

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 
--------------------- 
 
¶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 
------------------------- 
 
¶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 
----------------- 
 
¶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 
------- 
 
¶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