So, dear friends, let's continue. We're running out of time.
Dear Manuel, thank you very much for your words. As you can see, we heard them. You have a plan. You have a goal. You will become Minister-President, and we can already feel it, dear Manuel.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear delegates, we are slowly coming to the end, and in that context I would like to welcome four people from our own ranks once again, very warmly, among us. Ladies and gentlemen, I warmly welcome the President of the German Bundestag, Julia Klöckner.
I welcome the Chairman of the CDU/CSU Parliamentary Group, our colleague Jens Spahn.
Ladies and gentlemen, I also welcome Ralf Brinkhaus, the former Chairman of the CDU/CSU Parliamentary Group.
And allow me also to welcome Hermann Gröhe, the President of the German Red Cross, among us.
Thank you very much. And Manuel, you have had a moment to catch your breath, and now you have the floor again.
So, thank you very much. I'm fit. That's how we do it in Baden-Württemberg. We also have to win an election. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for the warm welcome and the great support. It really means a great deal to us in Baden-Württemberg, and we are truly convinced that we will succeed together. And one person who will contribute to this success is a man who feels particularly committed to the responsibility for our country. We now come to agenda item 8, the report of the Chairman of the CDU Germany, and I will hand over.
We are probably the government that has been faced with the greatest challenges in many years, if not decades. And if you ask me about our mandate, about our goal, then it is exactly this: to hand on to our children and grandchildren a country that can continue to live in freedom, in peace, in prosperity and in social security. I want the political center to remain strong with us, and I want us to show that it is possible to do successful politics in Germany without the extremes. Germany will take initiatives to reaffirm the European idea of freedom and peace, so that Europe lives up to its claim and its significance in the world.
The two founding fathers of our Republic. They point us the way. Konrad Adenauer was a visionary, a decision-maker, and he is a political role model for us to this day. Konrad Adenauer was courageous, determined, and possessed an almost infectious confidence. Adenauer was a doer and a thinker, a strategist and a pragmatist. It is not a second too late that we remember exactly this in this year.
Dear friends, almost exactly to the day a year ago, a new German Bundestag was elected in Germany. After only three and a half years in opposition, we once again bear political responsibility for Germany today.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the voters who entrusted us with this responsibility and this task last year. Ladies and gentlemen, we will not disappoint our voters, and we will also work for all those who did not vote for us last year. We have a responsibility for all of Germany, for all citizens of our country. We were entrusted with the task of leading the country well, of nurturing its treasures, of leading society into the future, and of giving all of us confidence. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we can do that, Germany can do that, and we will do it. We are the party of the future, we are the party of doers, we are the party of confidence for Germany.
All of you, dear friends, contributed to this success in the federal election. The CDU Germany ran a model election campaign, and we owe thanks to all our campaigners, hundreds and thousands who took to the streets. And I would like, on behalf of those who ran this campaign so successfully in all constituencies, on behalf of the whole party, to thank two people in particular: our Secretary General Carsten Linnemann and the Deputy Secretary General Christina Stump. Thank you both for this campaign and for the work you continue to do. Dear friends, the success of the federal government will be our shared success, and responsibility for our country is our shared responsibility.
And we have just heard it impressively from this very stage. In just over two weeks, a new state parliament will be elected in Baden-Württemberg. Dear Manuel Hagel, you gave a great speech today, and in two weeks you have the chance to become the new Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg. We will accompany you on your way, we will support you on your way, and together with you we will be successful on March 8, 2026. After 15 years, back in the state chancellery. We will do everything to achieve this together.
And once again, two weeks later, Rhineland-Palatinate will go to the polls. Dear friends, after a long 34 years, the CDU in Rhineland-Palatinate can finally win a state election again with Gordon Schnieder, and together with you, dear Gordon, we will win this state election in Rhineland-Palatinate.
Now some observers may perhaps ask, why are we so sure about this? Why are we so confident? Well, the state parties are united and closed ranks. The two chairmen have played their part in making this possible, but also the CDU, the entire CDU, it is a bastion, it is a rock in the surf, a party of reliability and a party of leadership. Dear friends, we are the political party of the center in Germany, and we will not let anyone dispute where we stand in Germany.
We combine civic virtues. Yes, civic virtues. We combine this with modernity, with fresh starts, and with the pursuit of justice. We think positively and we want to achieve something. We take pleasure in political work, and we will not let the moaners and defeatists in our country drag us down, dear friends. We simply will not allow that.
We serve our country with all our hearts and with everything we have, because we, as we understand ourselves, understand and embody the DNA of this Republic better than anyone else. And as a people's party, we will always and permanently lay claim to this. We want to lead our country so that it has a good future, a future in freedom in which we can live safely. A future in freedom, dear friends.
And when I say this here so simply, these are great goals, this is a great task. But we, the CDU, have always shown that we can also take on responsibility successfully, especially in difficult times. Dear friends, these are difficult times. Well, what is the situation we find ourselves in today? We are meeting here in Stuttgart at a time of great tension. We can observe it every day. We are all witnesses to an epochal change in the global order.
The rules-based order, as we have called it, as we have known it, as it has shaped our political life, no longer exists in that form. A new world order, a great-power order, is taking shape at high speed. These changes affect the global economy, the order of world trade, but they also affect the security of Europe and Germany's role in the world. And dear friends, these changes are by no means taking place only beyond our borders. They also have an enormous domestic political dimension. They affect us all. Our lives are changing, our workplaces are changing, our society is changing. The changes also have a personal dimension for each of us.
Well, what do we do, dear friends? The answer is relatively simple. We are setting new priorities. This is how a new grand strategy emerges, namely for Germany within a united Europe. Like Konrad Adenauer, we show courage, courage to shape things and courage to assert ourselves in this world. Courage and willingness to take responsibility. These have been the hallmarks of our party since its founding. And dear friends, because this courage existed in our history, that is precisely why we live today in a reunified Germany in freedom. And that is why we are taking on exactly this challenge once again.
In this emerging era of the great powers, power is increasingly asserting itself against the law. In this new era, strength counts, above all military strength, but also economic strength. This new world is rougher and, yes, it is more dangerous, because where rules no longer count, the risk of conflict grows and rises. The new great-power politics triggers wars, as we have seen in Ukraine for four years. The new great-power politics is fought with tariffs, with subsidies, and with the restriction and limitation of market access. Dear friends, at the same time, technological competition is intensifying. Whoever falls behind in semiconductors, artificial intelligence, storage technologies loses not only economic strength, but also political power to shape things. Technology today determines industrial sovereignty and security-relevant capabilities. Whoever masters these technologies can also set the rules by which they are applied. And on top of that, we see it every day: unpredictability is becoming an instrument of power in politics.
We also feel this tension vis-à-vis the United States of America, and also the need to redefine our relationship with our American friends. Dear friends, let me say an open word, a personal remark. This transatlantic partnership has shaped large parts of my life, my political work, and also my professional and personal life. I know the country, I like the country, I like the people, most of them anyway in America. And I want and will not give up believing that there are still people living there with the same experiences, the same values, and the same culture. Despite all the political tensions we have, despite all the political tensions we are currently experiencing with the United States of America, the Americans, that is at least my feeling, they are our friends, they are my friends, and they should remain our friends. Dear friends, that is why we will not give up this friendship lightly, and we will always fight to keep it.
But it is also true that the United States of America itself is increasingly losing interest in the role of a guarantor power for the international order and in its role as a reliable guide. We would do well to make this clear to ourselves without illusions and without nostalgia. That is why we must now work on our future under these new conditions of the laws of power politics. I said this at the Munich Security Conference a week ago, and dear friends, thank you very much for the great approval I received there for my speech. Thank you for that.
And I would like to repeat one sentence here once again. We will not accept this new world order as an unchangeable fate. We can shape it. We are extending our hand to a renewed partnership with the USA. But we also know that in the future we will have to take our fate into our own hands. We want to do that, and we can do it too, dear friends.
And the headline, the headline over what we want to do is quite simply put: we want to be safe, we want to be strong, and we want to be free in this world that is reorganizing itself so much. Above all, we want to do this together with our friends in Europe. Dear friends, we want to be together with the democracies of this world, because democracies also need partners and friends. That is what makes democracies strong.
And why we also have to work together with the USA. Dear friends, one only needs to look at the war against Ukraine, which Russia unleashed four years ago. Let me first say on behalf of the CDU Germany: we stand on the side of the Ukrainian people, without ifs or buts.
We will never accept how a criminal Russian regime systematically wages war against the civilian population of that country, against elderly people, against women, and against children. All garnished with an almost unbearable Nazi propaganda against the Ukrainian people. A people that has suffered under German and Russian tyranny like hardly any other in the world. This will always meet with our determined opposition. This political stance.
Ladies and gentlemen, the war in Ukraine also makes one thing particularly clear. We no longer live in the old system, but we are not yet fully in a new one either. We in this part of Europe, we are not at war, but we are no longer at peace either. The threat to our freedom is palpable. We are experiencing cyberattacks on our data networks, terrorist attacks on the power supply, contract killings in the middle of Europe. We see espionage, propaganda, and systematic disinformation. And I say this in various places and today here as well: we will probably only understand the depth and dimension of these changes we are currently experiencing in retrospect, in a few years. But dear friends, in a few years we will not only be able to judge what is happening today. We will also have to account in a few years for whether we did the right thing today. For history teaches us one thing: appeasement does not create peace. It encourages the aggressor first. And whoever follows a naive pacifism today, whoever follows a naive pacifism today, promotes the wars of tomorrow. Dear friends.
This Russian war of aggression is therefore also a touchstone for our values, for our determination, and for us in Europe. Let us find a common answer to the question: how do we defend our values? How do we defend our interests? How do we defend our freedom and our security, our prosperity and our sovereignty in this increasingly uncertain world? We, dear friends, that is of course initially us in Germany, but none of us seriously believes that we can master this task alone. That is why 'we' always means for us in the CDU, also we in Europe, we, the CDU, we, the CDU see this today more than ever before, in the best tradition of Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl, in our firm will to answer the great questions of our time predominantly in European terms.
We act on the basis, as we put it, of a values-bound realism. We know that Europe must learn to speak the language of power. Our continent is fundamentally strong, with predominantly stable and consolidated democracies. We are technologically capable. We are full of innovative power. We have the single market as an unbeatable advantage, and at the same time we offer a normative alternative to imperialism and autocracy. And we are therefore a sought-after, an attractive partner for many emerging states around the world. That we have this right, dear friends, is not weakness but strength.
And we saw it very concretely a few days ago in the dispute over Greenland: when Europe acts united, when it does not give in to pressure, when Europe stands its ground, then Europe can be very successful. And we proved exactly that this week, ladies and gentlemen.
And that is why, for me, the sentence that is almost the most important in this fragile world is: security is the precondition of freedom. Whoever neglects their security becomes politically blackmailable. That is why Europe must do three things. First, we must become comprehensively capable of defending ourselves from our own strength, so that we do not have to be blackmailed. Dear friends, secondly, we must become economically stronger again. Europe is capable of more in all areas than it shows today. Two former Italian prime ministers, Enrico Letta and Mario Draghi, showed us this in their reports on the single market and European competitiveness. And last week, dear Lukas Frieden, you were there, we drew up a roadmap in the circle of European heads of state and government, and this meeting can unleash a new dynamic. It came about on our joint initiative. We want less regulation in Europe and we want more dynamism. Europe must now get up to speed. Dear friends.
I would perhaps put it even more clearly. This regulatory machinery in Brussels must shift down a few gears, and for that we must step on the gas when it comes to trade, where new opportunities are suddenly opening up for all of us in Europe.
There will be resistance. Too many people have simply rested on these regulatory vested interests over the past years and decades. But I will, dear friends, together with others, continue this struggle in the European Union in the coming weeks, months, and if necessary years with persistence.
We are concluding new trade agreements. Mercosur and India have already been mentioned here. All of this gives us strength in a sovereign, free, peaceful, and economically strong Europe. And one rubes one's eyes in astonishment at what the German Greens in the European Parliament come up with, attempting to stop this agreement with the South American states once again on the home straight. Ladies and gentlemen, that is irresponsible. We are continuing on our path, and we will not follow these Greens and others who, together with German AfD MEPs in the European Parliament, together with left-wing radicals in the European Parliament, have tried to stop this agreement. No, ladies and gentlemen, we are boldly continuing on our path in Europe and will not let these people hold us up.
And ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, my third point is that Europe must also become technologically sovereign. I admit that a few years ago I would not have used the term sovereignty in this way, but in our high-tech world, sovereign technological capability is a prerequisite for economic strength and for political capacity to act. Technological sovereignty means security, and it also means independence. The European language of power is not a language of violence and not a language of confrontation, but it is the language of progress, of success, of clarity, and of reliability. Allow me to say this because Lukas Frieden is with us today. Dear Lukas, you were in Washington a few days ago and gave a speech there. You were in Harvard and spoke about Europe there. You said Europe does things differently. Not only in what it wins, but in what endures. Thank you, dear Lukas Frieden, for these clear words. We share them, and we are going this European path together with our European neighbors, with you in Italy, dear Antonio. We are going this path of European power together in Europe.
Allow me, dear friends, to say a word in this context about China. China is an important trading partner for us, and that is precisely why I will travel to China next week with a large economic delegation. By the way, may I add in brackets, I will read again in the newspapers about the foreign chancellor. I now consider this a compliment, because I want to represent the Federal Republic of Germany abroad, and on most trips I have large economic delegations with me who have understood exactly that foreign policy today is also foreign economic policy, and that foreign economic policy is an essential part of our economic policy. I am not irritated by this. I will not be dissuaded from it. We need economic relations with the whole world, and that naturally includes a country like China. That is why I will travel there next week. But let us not have any illusions. China is today explicitly positioning itself against the USA and is claiming to define a new multilateral order according to its own rules. Freedom of opinion, religious freedom, and freedom of the press do not feature in this understanding. The commitment to the universal validity of human rights is rejected there as interference in internal affairs. May I ask the question once again: could it not be right, in view of this situation, that we Europeans, together with the Americans, have something better to offer in terms of our shared understanding of freedom, yes, our concept of humanity, than what we hear from the Middle Kingdom? Dear friends, that too is part of the truth of our relations.
But however the answer to that may turn out: Europe needs a strong Germany. A strong Germany is a prerequisite for a strong Europe. And conversely, this naturally also applies. We in our party know this better than anyone else. For years we have been hearing from our European neighbors that they want and expect leadership from Germany. That is why personal contact is so important to me, and that is why such important decisions had to be made immediately after the federal election. Dear friends, I will speak quite openly. The first decision of the federal government was to significantly increase defense spending, up to 5% of our gross domestic product. Our European neighbors and partners followed this path. We set the impulse and thereby also held NATO together. I know full well, and once again I will speak openly, that this opening up of new borrowing was a heavy burden for many people, also here in this hall, also for me. I want you all to know that. It was for me too. This decision was perhaps the hardest one I had to make in the past 12 months. But on the evening of the federal election it was clear that we had only a very short window of time to prevent Germany from becoming incapable of defending its freedom. Also at stake was our responsible leadership in Europe. Above all, we had to prevent a blockade announced by the far left and the far right. I made the decision for a joint path with the SPD and the Greens. I remain convinced of it to this day, and I am more convinced than I was a year ago. I am convinced this decision was right for Germany. It serves Germany, it serves our freedom, it serves our country, and it serves Europe.
In this sense, dear friends, leadership today means taking responsibility, even when it is uncomfortable. This responsibility also applies to us, of course. I have already said that the world is changing rapidly. Change is unavoidable, and yet many people in our country are unsettled. The reports show this right up to the most recent hours. Doubts about our country's promise of prosperity are growing, and because the concern is growing, the impatience of many people is growing. Every second German fears that politics will have negative effects on the future opportunities, particularly of the younger generation. Well, the German business model was quite clear for a long time: strong exports, global markets, reliable supply chains, cheap energy, security above all from the Americans. And with all that, we wanted to exercise the greatest possible political restraint. Dear friends, that will no longer work in the new world. I have described it in detail. Competition has become tougher, costs have risen, and the fight is being conducted with hard gloves. The epochal break affects us all. Every DAX corporation, every medium-sized business, every craft enterprise. Structural change is reality. The decisive question is therefore not whether we will change our economy, but how quickly we will manage these changes and how successful we will be at it.
And at the same time, perhaps even because of that, our country and most people in our country have a very good and very secure sense of what they can achieve and what we have achieved together. That is why, for me, the guiding principle is that change also opens up great opportunities for all of us. Whoever invests today can set the standard tomorrow. This requires courage on both sides. Among the companies that want to invest, but also among those that create the framework conditions, namely us, in the state, in the legislative bodies, in the governments. So let us talk about the problems in the country, and above all let us talk about the solutions to these problems together. To lead our country into this new era, we must act decisively. Germany, the Union, the federal government led by me. We have understood that. And I say this here quite openly and very personally: I am also in favor of us setting ambitious goals. Dear friends, I say this deliberately. I know that we will not achieve all of them. And yes, over the past few months I have repeatedly been told and criticized that I had set too ambitious goals. Yes, I will freely admit. Perhaps after the change of government we did not make it clear quickly enough that we cannot achieve this enormous reform effort overnight. I accept this criticism.
But dear friends, in truth, in truth it is about a completely different question. How courageous do we actually want to be together? How do we really tap our potential? And must there not be someone standing on the bridge who drives, who spurs on, who encourages, who names new opportunities and possibilities just as clearly as obstacles, resistance, and old habits that stand in our way. Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, that is how I understand my role in the federal government. I do not want to just moderate. I do not want to just declare the lowest common denominator to be our greatest goal. I do not want to just describe what is happening out there in the world anyway. I want to drive things forward. I want to set ambitious goals for us. I want to motivate us. Yes, I want to motivate us to high performance. Us, the federal government first and foremost, but with us the whole country, because that is what it is about now, and nothing less. Germany must reach peak performance, dear friends, otherwise we will not manage what we have set out to do.
I personally believe in the positive power of such a vision. I say what is possible and I do not constantly say what is not possible. I want to build things up and not let myself be dragged down by pessimism, fatalism, and intellectual laziness. Dear friends, we no longer have time for that. It is a waste of time to do such things, and the CDU Germany will do it differently from the way some people out there talk about Germany.
We are, as the CDU, the party of optimists, we are the party of doers, we are also the party of reconciliation between generations, and we are the party that, with firm convictions on a foundation of values and fundamental beliefs, joyfully and optimistically turns towards the future. That is the CDU, dear friends. That is how we got to work three quarters of a year ago.
In the first months of our government we have set a great deal in motion and already achieved a great deal. We have taken up almost all the agreements from the coalition agreement, and in some cases already implemented them. And yet we know that is not enough. We know the situation in industry, in the middle class, in the craft trades. We are watching the situation on the labor market with concern. We know the hardships of the people in Germany. That is why we will ignite the second stage. That is why we will have to continue making reforms. Dear friends. But
Anyone who wants to achieve something must first know what the task is. And for me, that begins with a very simple observation: the foundation of the house Federal Republic of Germany is strong. We can build on that, but many of the floors of the house standing on this foundation are in need of renovation. That is the situation we currently find in Germany.
At the beginning of my term of office, I visited all 16 federal states, and I saw incredible potential in each and every one of them. Germany has enormous strengths: our engineering skills and our successful Mittelstand, mechanical engineering, innovation, industrial depth, and smart service providers. We are a country with great, highly educated people full of ideas and commitment, who are eager to make a difference in our country, who want to take responsibility locally in their city for other people.
Well-educated scientists, diligent craftspeople and workers, very good teachers, nurses, doctors, and a good public service. Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, our society is full of strength. But the truth is also that we have long been falling far short of our potential. Yes, we are still the third-largest economy in the world, but the coming years will decide whether we remain so and whether we can become one of the global players.
Several years of recession have left deep traces in our society — not only economically, but also in the understanding, in the self-understanding of the country. The Federal Republic of Germany stood for economic success since the 1950s, and we were admired for it. Diligence, performance, economic power. Ladies and gentlemen, that remains to this day an unchanged part of our national identity.
And I deliberately went into the federal election campaign last year with the slogan that we can once again be proud of Germany. And that is, in the self-understanding of our country, decisively also a question of our economic success. That is why we are working with all our might to get our economy moving again. In this context, I want to say a word of thanks to Katharina Reiche. Dear Katharina, thank you very much for turning a green Federal Ministry of Economics back on its feet, and for working tirelessly every day for our economy in Germany and for reforms that are now truly urgently needed.
And there is quite a bit of positive news to report. We are growing again slightly this year. The economy is slowly coming out of the valley. Slowly. That is not spectacular, but the recession has stopped. Foreign direct investment in Germany has already doubled in 2025 compared with the previous year. We no longer have a capital outflow from Germany, but a net inflow. That shows that confidence in Germany is growing again.
And it is evidence that people abroad — and there the view of Germany is sometimes far more confident and positive than we judge our own country from within — that people abroad once again have faith in us. Industry in our country accounts for 22% of our economic output. Dear friends, I want to say this once again here, especially in Baden-Württemberg: Germany must remain an industrial country. We want to keep our manufacturing industry in Germany, and we want to ensure that the prosperity of our country is also earned to a very large extent from industry in the future.
But we know that much of what is slowly showing improvement is still not enough. We must do more. We must do more for the price competitiveness of our economy. Energy prices, taxes, levies — and of course bureaucracy — continue to burden our businesses. Now, competitiveness, dear friends, cannot be decreed politically. It must be earned in the truest sense of the word, and that is why we must and can further improve the framework conditions for companies and thus for investment in our location.
We have tackled these issues. We have carried out a corporate tax reform. We have lowered energy costs. We are now putting together an infrastructure program. I see Patrick Schnieder — we are doing an infrastructure program. We are not just spending a lot of money; we have adopted a law in the cabinet that will make it easier in future to obtain plans and permits. As fast as with this bridge on the Sauerland motorway, the Rahmetal Bridge. What was possible there in three years will not remain the exception in Germany in future, but will become the norm. We will be faster, we will be better, and we will in particular expand the infrastructure in our country better.
And that also applies to innovation, right through to the military sector. Investments in defense, ladies and gentlemen: many key innovations do not arise in large corporations, but in young, highly specialized companies. By the way, last year there were a third more new business formations among startups and young companies than in the previous year. The young generation is obviously more optimistic and confident about Germany's future than some of those who write about Germany in the media. Ladies and gentlemen and dear friends, something is really happening. We are seeing something.
Security policy can also be founder policy. We see that in various areas. Last year I was traveling with our state premiers to various locations — in Mainz, in Hannover. Biotechnology is growing there at the Jülich Research Center together with you, dear Henrik Wüst. There is a supercomputer at the old nuclear research center Jülich, which is now called the Jülich Research Center. We are building computing centers in Germany among the largest in the world. We will succeed in achieving sovereignty in the digital world of tomorrow as well. There is much underway that gives us reason for confidence.
Ladies and gentlemen, I say this deliberately now here in Stuttgart and addressed to Manuel Hagel: your state, Baden-Württemberg, stands for the industrial and innovative pulse of our country, for inventive spirit and engineering skills. These strengths, which have made us so successful, are all too often buried under a thick layer of bureaucratic regulations, of fragmented responsibilities, and of a culture of hedging and risk avoidance. That is what frequently characterizes our country.
Innovations in our country do not fail for lack of ideas or technological possibilities. They too often fail because of the time we need to implement them and to obtain approval. And we see that in many industries — we see it in the automotive industry, we see it in the chemical industry. Dear friends, that is why I have committed myself to ensuring that the end of the combustion engine must come from the combustion engine itself, because only in that way do we remain technology-open in Germany and ensure that the automotive industry has a good future.
Where much is being changed, much must also be preserved. Among other things, dear friends, one of the greatest achievements of our country, our society, our state — namely what we call the social state. We want to make this social state permanently affordable. It must be effective. It must remain fair for all generations. We have begun with the reforms. The Social State Commission has presented its first report, and it rightly received a great deal of praise. We will see further reports this year, but not only reports — we will get down to concentrated work in health policy, in old-age security, in care policy.
In this context, Nina Wagen, thank you very much for your great work as Health Minister. You have taken on a very difficult task. Thank you very much for doing it with such great commitment, and that we can rely on you so much in doing so.
Dear friends, we are tackling these issues together with our coalition partner. That is not easy for the SPD, and not for us either. The debates will be arduous, but they are necessary, and we must conduct them successfully for our country. For us, at the core of our understanding of the state as the CDU, it is about this: a modern social state creates incentives and fewer prohibitions. That is our fundamental conviction.
And then I often hear in this context that the CDU is not close enough to the people, that it may even be hard-hearted, that it accuses people of laziness. Dear friends, that is a malicious accusation. We accuse no one of laziness. In Germany, hard work is done. We are still a high-performance country of doers and makers. But we accuse our critics of intellectual laziness, because they do not want to admit that we have a few wrong incentives in the system, that we have rules that are too strong, and that our performance capacity is being strangled by a bureaucratic corset. We have to change that in Germany, and we will change it — together with the Social Democrats.
We are faced with only an apparent contradiction, and we must explain that contradiction better. Companies are looking for workers, and at the same time unemployment is rising again to over three million. The work, dear friends, is there. We only have to make it possible. We have to unlock the potential in our country so that we can raise labor productivity. And we will not manage that — I want to say it once again, even if it does not please everyone — if we promise a four-day week for everyone. We can and must become more flexible. We must reward willingness to perform. We must make it easier to return to work. And above all, we must enable and indeed grant companies and employees joy in work and in success. That is our basic attitude and our assessment.
That is why I mention once again in this context the new basic security that is to replace the old citizen's income. It is a core concern for all of us. Whoever needs help will get it. But whoever can work must also go to work. That is our conviction, and that is our political approach.
Dear friends, on the subject of pensions too we have a hard nut to crack. Despite all the pain and problems with the pension package and with the active pension, we have laid the first foundations, and everyone must understand that this is not the end. This year we will still have to make proposals for a fundamental reform of old-age provision. The statutory pension insurance will remain, but it will become only one building block of a new overall provision system in which private old-age provision and occupational old-age provision play a substantially greater role than in the past. What we are planning is nothing less than a paradigm shift in German pension policy.
But reform does not mean simply cutting things back and that's it. That is at least my understanding, and it is also not the tradition of our party. Reform means wisely positioning ourselves for the future — and where could that be more important than in health policy? There too we must set fundamental reforms in motion. All of this means that the structural problems we have will no longer be ignored and glossed over. We are tackling them. That is a big and arduous program. I say it once again: it must serve the goal of restoring Germany's economic strength and the Germans' confidence in that strength.
We must get out of the situation in which one coalition partner makes proposals that the other ritualistically rejects. Both must get out of that.
We are in dialogue, and I know the mission I have described here. In all my conversations, however, I have also gained the confidence that this applies to everyone — to everyone sitting at the coalition table. Dear friends, I am sure that people feel the pressure for reform in our country, or better still, they want to take part in this project, Germany's new beginning. I encounter a great deal of responsibility. I encounter a great deal of willingness to participate. We have a high-performing young generation that deserves praise for its successes, not distrust. I trust this country. I trust the strength that lies within all of us.
I have spoken about our defense capability, but, dear friends, security also includes our internal security. Never before have the demands on our security authorities been so great. The complexity has increased massively through hybrid threats — threats that do not aim at open confrontation, but that are deliberately aimed at destabilizing our society. That is why I want to say a very heartfelt word of thanks to Alexander Dobrindt for tackling all these threats with equal resolve. It was perfectly clear to us that the state must be capable of acting. That is why we are strengthening the police and the security authorities.
And, dear friends, security is no longer divided into internal security and external security. I cannot say often enough how gratifying it is that, for the first time in almost 60 years, the Foreign Office is once again in the hands of the CDU. Dear Joe Wadefu, thank you very much for your work.
Just imagine for a moment. Just imagine for a moment: if there were still a Green in the Foreign Office, still a Green in the Ministry of Economics, and a Social Democrat in the Interior Ministry — dear friends, then the problems of our country would probably be unsolvable. I am therefore very grateful to my colleagues in the Foreign Office, in the Interior Ministry, in the Ministry of Economics, that we are now tackling this work hand in hand for our internal and our external security together.
Because in times of upheaval, people long for security and order, and they say so. They then very often turn to authoritarian leaders. There is a fascination with the authoritarian that reaches far into the middle of our society. But history has shown us Germans again and again that this leads to disaster. And on top of that, our digital, modern life obviously loves simple solutions, short sentences: swipe right, swipe left, thumbs up, thumbs down, problem solved. Yes, but, dear friends, democracy is not that simple. Democracy needs time. Democracy needs debate. Democracy sometimes needs conflict. And democracy ultimately needs compromise. A few likes will not do it.
So let us keep conveying this to the voters again and again. Let us explain it better, again and again, patiently but also firmly. Our system, our democracy lives on trust — trust in institutions, trust in the institutions of our state. But it is precisely here that we see in these days a particular degree of hypocrisy when we look to the right-wing fringe. We observe cronyism, chaos, trench warfare, the abuse of public offices and funds. They act as if they were an alternative to the political center that they had previously despised as the elite and the old parties. And then the whole thing turns out, dear friends, to be a grand self-service store. We have nothing at all to do with these people.
Voters have a right to be able to trust their politicians. Trust arises through clarity and openness. And that is why I want to say to you, dear delegates of the CDU Germany, on behalf of the almost 400,000 members of our party, but also and above all to the voters throughout Germany: I have finally decided to seek approval for our policy exclusively in the political center of our country.
That certainly narrows us down at the moment to a coalition with the SPD, but we Christian Democrats in particular must do everything — and I will do it as party chairman — to ensure that the legacy of our country's history, which is also the legacy of our party, is not squandered just for a short-term desire for power or success with the right-wing populist forces in our country. Dear friends, the consequence is clear to me.
I am fully aware that this means the two remaining parties of the democratic center, the Union and the SPD, are dependent on each other. Both parties suffer internally from this situation. The Social Democrats, but we too. Both the Social Democrats and we are concerned about our voters. That must drive us all the more to solve the challenges from the center. Yes, dear friends, I too would like to tackle and complete some things more quickly and decisively, but this system obliges us, together with our coalition partner, to push against the limits of our possibilities.
And when I speak here today as chairman of the CDU, I need your solidarity, dear friends, but also your patience. With the same seriousness, however, I will also say to our Social Democratic partners: we have a joint mandate to put things in Germany in order, and in the coming weeks we must therefore make more progress with domestic reforms than before. And this mandate, we must now push forward together with all our strength.
And allow me to say a word about the societal and political debate in our country. The worst attacks on what I always call the normative foundation of our society, of our freedom, of our country — the worst attacks on this normative foundation are currently to be seen in a resurgent antisemitism. More than 80 years after the end of the Second World War and after the end of National Socialism, there is once again open and even violently expressed antisemitism in Germany — from Islamist groups, from the left and from the right-wing fringe, and partly disguised in the garb of the media and of culture and freedom of opinion. Dear friends, we will not tolerate Jew-hatred in this country.
We stand on the side of all Jews in Germany, and we stand on the side of Israel. And I also want to add: I am very glad that we have a minister in the federal cabinet in Karin Prien who, like no other, works for our social cohesion and above all against every form of antisemitism in Germany. Dear Karin, thank you very much for that.
But let us not fool ourselves, dear friends. Because when, in a Berlin district in Neukölln, a notorious Israel-hater is nominated as the mayoral candidate of the Left Party, that shows that antisemitism is apparently becoming socially acceptable again in certain political circles of our country. Dear Kai Wegner, you are taking a determined stand against this in Berlin, a city increasingly marked by antisemitism. We will support you in defending the Red City Hall this autumn. You can count on the whole party standing behind you to prevent these people in Berlin from also conquering the Red City Hall.
But it is not only Berlin. It is not only Berlin. 80 years — 80 years after the end of the Nazi dictatorship — forces are gaining strength in our country that mock the victims of the Nazi regime, that admire imperialism, that mock the postulate of human dignity, that mock the rule of law and our Basic Law, that want to turn back decades of social progress. We will not allow it, ladies and gentlemen, and I say it once again: we will not allow these people from the so-called Alternative for Germany to ruin our country. We will not allow it.
And that is why I say it with full conviction: this party here in this hall, at this federal party conference — East and West, North and South — this party cannot be a partner for us. We will not do it, and we must take up this fight, ladies and gentlemen, also in the autumn in the East, to prevent right-wing radicalism from once again moving into the state chancelleries in Germany.
Dear friends, the architects of reunification — above all Helmut Kohl — came from our party, from the CDU. And Angela Merkel, you were Chancellor for 16 years and you personally embodied this unity. The unification of our country in unity and freedom is the greatest stroke of luck in our more recent history and a gigantic achievement of the whole country, in East and West, in North and South.
Yes, some historical injustice remains fully in the awareness of the still-existing problems. Nevertheless, I say: the reconstruction since 1990 was a great success. It was a great success. And yet, in the East, trust in politics has suffered particularly in recent years. There is, as I perceive it, a widespread and understandable feeling of disenchantment and perhaps also of disappointment and frustration that, for example, life achievements have not received the appreciation that they have elsewhere.
That the CDU has permanently taken on responsibility in the eastern German states and secured democratic stability remains a huge credit and a great achievement of our state premiers whom we have today in the eastern German states. Mario Fogt, Michael Kretschmer, thank you very much for your great work in these eastern German states under the most difficult conditions.
And then sitting here is Reiner Haseloff. Dear friends, Reiner Haseloff showed in 2021 that it can be done. He refuted all the polls, the lies, and Svend Schulze will also succeed in doing that in Saxony-Anhalt in eastern Germany. It can be done, dear friends. Let us not be driven crazy. We have every chance, and we will show that together in September in Saxony-Anhalt, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and also in Berlin.
So we see, dear friends, the great political responsibility we bear, the magnitude of the challenge and the magnitude of the tasks. Yet we firmly believe that Germany, Europe, ever larger parts of the world have a good future ahead of them. In that sense, we must fight for and strive for the trust of the people. We bear responsibility for Europe and for our country. We bear responsibility in the states. We bear responsibility in the large and small towns, in the municipalities, in the villages, in the districts. May I also say this: thank you to all those who do their work unspectacularly and below the radar of public opinion in the municipal councils, in the district councils, in the city councils. Thank you for this great work that you do. That is the backbone of the CDU.
And so we carry responsibility in many places for 84 million people in our country. I have spoken about the tasks we face in the federal government and in the party. We know where we must now get to work. I have spoken about our chances, about the many chances we have as a country and together in Europe in these years to do things anew and better — for the good of all, for the good of the young, but also for the good of the growing-up and the older generation. For that we govern with new resolve. Let us not delude ourselves, dear friends: Germany is looking to us.
We are only one party, one part of the whole. But as a party we are, I believe, well positioned for this task. We have strong associations, state associations, district associations, county associations. We have strong and successful associations. And that is why I am convinced that we will not only achieve good election results in 2025 and 2026. We will also win the state elections in 2027 — five in number: in Saarland, in Bremen, in Schleswig-Holstein, in North Rhine-Westphalia, and in Lower Saxony. Yes, we also want to win elections there next year, and we will win them, dear friends, in these named states.
In addition, our relationship with the CSU has rarely been as good as in recent years. This cohesion with our sister party is a success factor for all of us, and for that Markus Söder and I jointly bear responsibility as the party chairmen of the CDU and CSU. And we will welcome Markus Söder here with us tomorrow with joy and much applause, and I will thank him once again, very, very warmly, for the good cooperation we have in the Union, in the parliamentary group, and between the two parties. I am already doing so from this point, dear friends.
And now allow me, in conclusion, to look back once again very briefly. Almost exactly 80 years ago, on 13 [August] 1946, in the Sauerland, in my home, in my federal electoral constituency, the Ahlen program of the CDU was adopted in the then British occupation zone in the presence of Ludwig Erhard, in the presence of Konrad Adenauer. With this program, the still young CDU, which had only just been founded in some parts of Germany, turned away from socialism. With that, the compass of our political action was set. It was called prosperity for all.
That was not a materialistic end in itself, but it was the basis for freedom and social cohesion. It was the connection between economic dynamism and social justice. Dear friends, even 80 years later, all our actions are devoted to this goal. We subordinate the necessary reforms to this goal, and to this goal I too have committed myself, precisely out of this historical responsibility that is also connected with my home. I am certain that the future in our country and beyond belongs to those who act, to those who are now determined. We have it in our hands. In a world of great powers, we in Europe and in Germany are the normative alternative.
We preserve and defend our values. We stand for freedom, openness, and sovereignty. It is Germany that deserves our whole effort — the effort of the federal government and also my personal effort. You can count on that, dear friends. And with this self-confidence we go into the year 2026, which has already begun. Fighting for majorities in Germany, fighting for the approval of the voters in Germany, because we have a good offer. It is about our country, it is about Germany in Europe. Thank you very much for your attention.
Thank you very much.
