A week after his party's historic defeat in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Johannes Winkel warns the CDU it faces an existential crisis unless it changes course. Winkel, head of the Junge Union and newly appointed deputy leader of the Union's parliamentary group, wants the level of social benefits to depend on whether recipients have previously paid into the social system.
"Is it actually okay that two people get the same amount of social benefits, and one of them has never paid anything in?" Winkel asked in an interview with the "Ronzheimer" podcast. His demand: "Those who haven't paid in beforehand should get less." He called this a central question of fairness in Germany.
In the state election on 20 September, the CDU failed the five-percent threshold in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania with 4.9 percent. It was the first time in the Federal Republic's history that the party missed entry into a state parliament. The AfD won the election with 38.2 percent of the vote.
Winkel insisted his idea is not about nationality, saying that framing it as Germans versus foreigners would be "populist." He acknowledged, however, that migration drives the scale of the issue: "In a time when mass migration to Germany was allowed, and very, very many people ended up in the German social system, that of course makes a quantitative difference." He said about half of basic-income recipients do not hold a German passport.
He declined to name figures, saying experts should work out the amounts, and noted that prior contributions also used to affect benefits under the former Hartz IV system. Winkel also dismissed constitutional objections. The Basic Law defines Germany as a welfare state, he said, but does not set benefit levels, and parliament, as the legislator, should stop hiding behind legal concerns.
Winkel said he raised the issue in response to the SPD, which he says is using a "fairness debate" to reopen parts of the coalition's already agreed pension package. If the Social Democrats want to talk about fairness, he argued, contributions have to be part of it. He rejected suggestions that he was adopting AfD positions under electoral pressure, saying he had raised the idea months earlier. Asked about possible AfD support, he said he would fight for the proposal within the governing coalition, not with the AfD.
Winkel backed the coalition's pension reform, saying it will stabilise pensions and make the system less dependent on the ratio of workers to retirees. The package faces resistance from CDU premiers in the east. In early August, Saxony-Anhalt's Sven Schulze threatened to block it in the Bundesrat if the government scraps penalty-free early retirement after a long working life, and Saxony's Michael Kretschmer made a similar threat. Winkel called their opposition "somewhat irresponsible."
Winkel also issued a broader warning to his own party. "Parties that don't change die," he said. Loyal core voters no longer exist, he argued, and the CDU faces "an existential problem" unless it delivers structural reforms, above all to pensions, health and unemployment insurance. Germany has lived off its economic substance since around 2010, he said, and that substance is now used up.
Winkel said Chancellor Friedrich Merz bears "a large share" of responsibility for the party's crisis, but he rejected calls to replace him, arguing that a new leader would face the same problems. He plans to take his benefits proposal to Merz and to Labour Minister and SPD leader Bärbel Bas.
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