On 31 May, our senior consultant Birgit Henschel-Neumann attended the CDU’s annual business day in Berlin. As always, leading figures from politics and business participated in the Wirtschaftstag2022.

One thing that only our colleague seems to have noticed: hardly any women were involved in the podium discussions or were present in the plenary! Only the moderators were predominantly women. The CDU’s Economic Council doesn’t appear to be particularly attractive to women at the moment, despite the council having a strong woman as its helm in the form of Astrid Hamker. Birgit Henschel-Neumann discussed this matter with Christian Eichhorn, who is the authorised representative of the federal government in the Economic Council. He wants to campaign for greater visibility of women within the Economic Council.

For those who weren’t there: the event was opened by Astrid Hamker (President of the CDU’s Economic Council), Friedrich Merz (Federal Chairman of the CDU), Guillaume Faury (CEO, Airbus SE) and the moderator Christiane Christiansen. Ursula von der Leyen (President of the European Commission) joined via video link and gave a speech on the EU’s position in the #Ukraine war. This was followed by presentations by high-profile attendees on topics such as the #restart after the pandemic, old-age provisions, #mobility and #housing, #key digital technologies, #energy security and #climate protection. Former President of the Bundestag Dr Wolfgang Schäuble presented the #Ludwig Erhard commemorative coin to Dr Jens Weidmann (former Bundesbank President). Christian Lindner (Federal Minister of Finance) and Jens Sewing (Chairman of the Board, Deutsche Bank) closed the event.