Söder unveils 10-point plan to quell CSU revolt after vice-chief Weber demands course change

The trigger

Weeks of simmering resentment inside Bavaria’s Christian Social Union erupted into the open after deputy leader Manfred Weber sent a Pentecost letter to office holders demanding a "more serious politics" and a return to conviction over Zeitgeist.

“The best years for the CSU came when we did not follow the spirit of the times but our convictions.”

Many in the party read the five-page letter as a frontal attack on party chairman and state premier Markus Söder, who had already been under fire for social-media frippery, repeated U-turns and the CSU’s worst local election result in 74 years.

The showdown

When the 40-strong executive convened in Munich on Monday, members spoke of a brutally frank exchange that had been building since Söder’s re-election with only 83.6 percent last December. Weber repeated his call for no "business as usual," while parliamentary group leader Alexander Hoffmann called the letter "an irritation" that was "maximally botched."

“We were irritated. The letter was maximally botched.”

Vice-president of the Bundestag Andrea Lindholz insisted such debates belong "behind closed doors." Söder deliberately did not invite Weber to the subsequent press conference, though the chairman made a point of never speaking his critic’s name, referring to him only as "the colleague" or "someone."

The ten points

Söder’s reform package is designed to "take the party along, motivate it and organise it better." It includes digital surveys of members on current decisions, grassroots conferences, a revival of the moribund programme commission, a foreign-policy congress on defence and Europe in the second half of the year, and an executive retreat after the autumn state elections conceived as a "thought workshop." The party-affiliated Hanns Seidel Foundation is to be upgraded into a bridge between science and politics – a think tank, as the foundation’s incoming head Klaus Holetschek put it. Söder also wants functionaries and associations to become more visible on social media.

Söder’s framing

Although several of the planks mirror Weber’s demands, the chairman insisted he had worked out the ideas beforehand and pushed back against calls for a grand narrative.

“Not musing but governing is decisive. Parties that merely search end up looking helpless.”

He pointed to turmoil in other German parties (CDU, SPD, FDP) and the strong poll ratings of the far-right AfD as evidence of a "hard time for all democrats" and urged the CSU to show courage instead of complaining.

“Quarrelling weakens, unity strengthens.”

Temporary truce

All sides left the meeting presenting a common front, but the question of how much real participation Söder is willing to grant remains open. Weber had to leave early for a Strasbourg appointment and was excluded from the press event. While nobody in the party currently looks capable of challenging the chairman, the months of grumbling suggest the 10-point plan is the beginning of a negotiation, not the end of the tension.