End of Merkel era begins as German CDU picks new party leader

BERLIN:

Germany’s Christian Democrats elected Armin Laschet as chairman on Saturday, aiming to unify their divided party behind a centrist who they hope can succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor when she steps down after federal elections in September.

Laschet, premier of Germany’s most populous state and the self-styled Merkel continuity candidate, won a runoff ballot of party delegates against arch-conservative Friedrich Merz.

The new elected Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party leader Armin Laschet speaks after being elected at the party's 33rd congress, held online because of the coronavirus pandemic, in Berlin, Germany, January 16, 2021. PHOTO: Reuters

Merkel, Europe’s predominant politician and a consistent winner with German voters since taking office in 2005, has said she will not run for chancellor again, and since she stepped down as CDU leader in Dec 2018, the party has struggled to find a suitable successor.

North Rhine-Westphalia premier Laschet, who beat Merz by 521 votes to 466, said he would do everything he could to ensure the CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), could “stick together through this year.”

They could then work towards making sure that “the next chancellor in the federal elections will be from the (CDU/CSU) union,” he said in his victory speech.

Saturday’s digital election will be confirmed by a postal vote with legally binding results expected on Jan 22.

Merkel said last year that Laschet, 59, had “the tools” to run for chancellor, the closest she has come to endorsing anyone.

In his candidacy speech, Laschet said the next leader’s task would be to earn trust for both himself and for the party and emphasised his ability to integrate all of its wings.

“I keep hearing that you also have to be able to polarise. I say: no, you don’t have to,” he told an empty conventional hall, from which the congress was livestreamed to delegates due to the pandemic.

By tradition, the CDU chairman is usually - though not always - the chancellor candidate for the CDU and CSU, and the conservative bloc is on course to win September’s federal ballot.

Opinion polls give Merkel’s conservative bloc around 36% of votes, followed by the Greens on around 20% and the Social Democrats on 16%.