CDU city association Kaarst-Büttgen, January 2025
Christian Horn-Heinemann
Ladies and gentlemen,
Dear members of the CDU,
Honoured guests,
First things first: from the bottom of our hearts, we wish you a healthy, happy and successful 2025.
I am delighted to welcome you all to our traditional New Year's reception today to raise a glass to the well-being of us all and to organise an informative, relaxed and enjoyable evening for you. Thank you for coming.
Dear guests, two outstanding personalities of our party from Berlin are with us today:
Dr Carsten Linnemann, member of the German Bundestag since 2009, member of the NRW CDU state executive committee since 2010, member of the
Federal Executive Committee and Secretary General of the CDU Germany since 2023, who, as one of the Union's formative minds, has formulated and developed clever answers to the demanding challenges of our time and, as Chairman of the Commission, has played a key role in incorporating them into our basic programme adopted last year.
And Ansgar Heveling, our member of the Bundestag, who has represented our constituency in Berlin for years as a reliable and strong voice. You are a man of action who has rightly won the trust of the people here locally - not through big words, but through closeness to the people and reliable action.
Both stand for what has always characterised our party: responsibility, drive and the unshakeable will to shape the lives of people in our country for the better.
You are very welcome.
We are very much looking forward to what you, dear Carsten Linnemann, have to tell us today.
The start of the new year invites us to pause, reflect and focus on what lies ahead.
This year 2025 will be a very special and significant year for our country, our home and our party. I am convinced that we must reorient ourselves at all levels - federal, state and city - and fight for our democracy and our values, because the world is changing dramatically and at a galloping pace. There is no end in sight.
We experience a world:
- whose previous foundation of values seems to be dissolving more and more,
- in which our previous international structures of order and power no longer seem to hold,
- in which new political blocs are forming in Europe and in Germany and are breaking ground with violence, selfishness and inhumanity
- and our democracies are under great strain and are being called into question.
We are experiencing a Germany,
- which is urgently waiting for a new orientation and an assertive and value-orientated leadership that rebuilds lost trust and economic radiance and pushes back the politically extreme fringes of the right and left through authentic political action.
We experience our home town of Kaarst,
- which, after 5 years of extensive standstill and empty coffers, many missed opportunities, often weak leadership and extensive lack of direction, urgently needs to get back on track.
must get back on the road to success.
The federal election in a few weeks' time will be a directional election for Germany. It will decide whether we leave the stagnation of the past three years of the traffic light coalition and find the strength to tackle the challenges of our time with foresight and determination.
The people in our country do not expect empty promises from us, but clear visions for the future: among other things, a stable, future-oriented economy, securing Germany as an industrial location and secure jobs, a sustainable energy policy, strong domestic security and a reliable foreign and education policy. This is the only way to secure our standard of living and a financially secure future.
Dear Dr Linnemann, under your decisive leadership, we as a federal party have renewed this claim. You rightly remind us that economic stability is the foundation of our prosperity and that we must not lose any time in tackling the challenges of the skills shortage, digitalisation and the energy transition with courage and pragmatism.
But let's not be lulled into a false sense of security. Beyond all the fleeting poll results, the Bundestag election will not be an easy election and will not be a sure-fire success - we can all feel that. Even foreign countries are trying harder than ever to exert a massive influence on the election. But we have the strength, the experience, the expertise and the passion to show the people: The CDU is the best choice for a stable, strong and successful Germany. I can sense this in the many conversations I have had with citizens here in Kaarst and it gives me great hope.
After 24 February, all our attention and energy will be devoted to the local elections in September. Here on the ground, in local and district politics, we will see what politics really means: direct responsibility for people's quality of life:
This is the decisive factor,
- How we live and develop our Kaarst in a structurally appealing way so that people can feel comfortable and enjoy living here in the future, especially in affordable housing.
- how we work and how our domestic economy develops in such a way that it can serve the well-being and benefit of all.
- whether we feel comfortable using our talents on a voluntary basis,
This is the decisive factor,
- what sports, cultural and leisure activities are on offer and how well maintained our surroundings are,
- how much we value and nurture our domestic SMEs as the backbone of our economy,
- and whether we offer our young people attractive training and career prospects,
- with which appreciation and with which concrete offers we support our families, our children in their care, education and upbringing, have sufficient and appealingly good schools in which people enjoy learning,
- and make life easier for our elderly fellow human beings.
This is where the decision is made,
- Ladies and gentlemen, how we are increasingly becoming an urban community in which the administration also feels involved, which has to implement everything that politics decides as a service to the people and is appreciated for everything that it does well.
- And last but not least, this is where it is crucial how we make and maintain the financial health of this city in the long term. Because in the long term, you can only spend what you have. That's how each and every one of us feels.
Kaarst is a city that has always been characterised by economic strength, cultural diversity and a high quality of life and has had an excellent image.
Unfortunately, these advantages of recent years have gradually faded into the background, with fatal consequences for people.
Good local politics is geared towards solving the very concrete problems of everyday life on the ground, developing visions, implementing them in a targeted manner and being able to finance them. For many, this has been visibly lacking in the last four years.
It is high time that these problem solutions became our core business again in close coordination between politics and administration. Because hesitation and procrastination not only mean stagnation in municipal politics, but also regression in inter-municipal competition.
Under the heading of "budget consolidation", people also understand that painful truths about cherished achievements can sometimes be part of the process. However, these truths must be clearly named, explained and placed and communicated in the context of the city's overall considerations.
Pushing ostrich policies and responsibility onto others inevitably ends in disaster. We must protect Kaarst from this in the future.
The new mayor and the governing council parties will therefore have major tasks ahead of them and will tackle them in a targeted manner. And with the mentality, as they say here in the Rhineland: "Net kalle - donn!" or "just do it"as Carsten Linnemann titles his podcast.
This is a promise that we are making to you publicly here today. We will be there for the people, actively listen to them, incorporate their concerns into our political actions and not fob them off with empty words and empty promises, ladies and gentlemen.
The debate about the best solutions can and must be conducted with a sharp focus and sharpness on the matter; different positions and existing grievances must be made clear and named. False claims and undifferentiated approaches to complex problems must be uncovered and concretised.
Voters will soon be able to recognise who offers real content and implementable ideas for Kaarst and who merely wraps themselves in promises without the ability to implement them.
Our democracy can tolerate all of this and, what's more, it actually needs this competition of ideas. However, it must be conducted with respect and decency.
A democracy, and we have to keep reminding ourselves of this, needs clear rules - and people who recognise and accept them, even if they don't like a vote or a decision, for example.
Disparagement, intimidation, personal insults and even criminal defamation are always completely unacceptable.
There must be no place for all of this in our organisation, because it is poison for political discourse and ultimately poison for our democracy. Let's not allow this to happen in Kaarst in future. Let's lead the way together and set a good example.
We have an exemplary function, ladies and gentlemen. Political commitment should be fun. It is up to us to set an example. Then many will follow us.
As the CDU and the largest parliamentary group in Kaarst, we have a great responsibility. We must keep this city liveable, strong and safe for future generations. We are committed to this - with clear ideas, with well thought-out and sustainable concepts, with broad expertise and a great deal of passion for this city, ladies and gentlemen.
2025 and the coming years will demand a lot from us, but there is no reason for resignation - on the contrary. As the CDU, we have the strength, the expertise and the unconditional will to take on the challenges and master them together.
Dear Dr Linnemann and Ansgar, we are united behind you and will do everything we can to make your - our - election campaign in February a great success and to set a new course for Kaarst in September.
Finally, I would like to share an important truth with you:
Politics is not just the struggle for necessary power, but above all the organisation of responsibility. It thrives on people's trust in their representatives and therefore also on good and trusting cooperation between administrative management and politicians with an open ear for the concerns of citizens.
For me, our long-standing full-blooded head of administration, District Administrator Hans-Jürgen Petrauschke, symbolises such successful administrative action and the art of political communication and cooperation between the district and its towns. He is an example to many, including me. Thank you very much for your tireless commitment to the people, Mr Petrauschke.
Thank you all - for your interest, especially the many volunteers in Kaarst for their commitment, their passion for the people, for their example and for their trust.
Let's make this year 2025 a year of success together - for our country, for the CDU, for our home town of Kaarst, for the Rhine district of Neuss and for each and every one of us.