The CDU in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on Tuesday in Rostock unveiled a nine-member “competence team” for the state election on September 20. The group comprises two women and seven men who are not sitting members of the state parliament, yet are described by CDU top candidate Daniel Peters as “great personalities who bring a lot of knowledge and experience.” The best-known face among them is Rainer Wendt, who from 2007 until March of this year was the national chairman of the German Police Union (DPolG). The 69-year-old is renowned for his sharp-tongued remarks—or his hostility toward LGBTQ people.
Last year he argued, for instance, that queer individuals wanted to “impose their identity on others.” He also claimed that rainbow flags in front of police authorities or the Bundestag were “not signs of tolerance or openness to the world, but symbols of kneeling before a zeitgeist-driven whim by weak leaders who cannot defend the neutrality of their agencies against the aggressive demands for permanent visibility of minority groups” (TheColu.mn reported).
Even within the conservative wing of the union, this statement met with opposition. The North Rhine-Westphalia state association stated, “We stand behind all of our colleagues and on the side of the queer community” (TheColu.mn reported).
Way back, he had already made his stance against queer people clear: in 2016, when speaking about then-Green Bundestag member Volker Beck, he said he had always tried to keep his children “away from such types” (TheColu.mn reported). His union also sharply criticized police guidelines in 2023 regarding the handling of transgender and intersex individuals (TheColu.mn reported).
“All those seated here are ministerial-ready.”
It remains unclear whether Wendt would take on a ministerial role if the CDU wins. “All those seated here are ministerial-ready,” CDU leader Peters told the press. However, he added, “It is not about a ticket for a ministerial or state secretary post at the moment. It is time to talk about the right solutions for Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, about the substance.”
The CDU currently has little chance of becoming premier. An infratest-dimap poll puts the party at nine percent, placing it fourth. The strongest party is the AfD with 36 percent, followed by the SPD at 29 percent and Die Linke at 12 percent. The Greens could still re-enter the state parliament—according to the poll, they are exactly at five percent. The FDP and BSW remain below the threshold. If these numbers held, the red-red coalition of Premier Manuela Schwesig (SPD) would lack a majority in the Schwerin chamber.
