BERLIN (AP) – Armin Laschet, the governor of Germany’s most populous state, emerged victorious from a crushing power struggle on Tuesday and became the candidate of Angela Merkel’s center-right bloc for the longtime chancellor in the country’s September election. to follow up.
Laschet, 60, is now facing another major battle: connecting with voters and winning over frustrated fellow conservatives who support his most popular rival, Markus Soeder.
Their Union bloc was the last major political force to nominate a candidate for chancellor in the September 26 parliamentary elections. Merkel is not seeking a fifth term after nearly 16 years in power.
The race escalated into a heated duel after Laschet, the leader of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, and Soeder, who leads his smaller Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, declared their interest in succeeding Merkel.
Soeder conceded after the CDU leadership backed Laschet in a late-night vote, promising that “we will support him with all our might without any resentment.”
“What counts now is which party has the best concepts for the future of our country and who forms the best team to meet the challenges,” Laschet told reporters in Berlin. “It is therefore important now that the Union, the CDU and CSU enter the election campaign as a team.”
Parts of the CDU strongly favored Soeder, while others vehemently opposed his attempt to get Laschet to elbow for the best post. Soeder has much better polls, but Laschet was elected in January to head the much larger party. It was primarily a conflict of personality and style rather than policy.
Laschet rules the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia and Southern the southern state of Bavaria.
Early last week, Laschet informally assembled the CDU leadership over his bid. But Soeder said the matter should not just be resolved in a small back room.
After days of talks not finding a solution but exposing divisions in the CDU, Soeder said on Monday that the larger party must decide and he will respect a ‘clear decision’.
At a tumultuous CDU leadership meeting, 31 of its members voted for Laschet, nine for Soeder and six abstained, the news agency dpa reported. This prompted Soeder to concede.
The union campaigned in federal elections together and has a joint parliamentary group. The CSU exists only in Bavaria, while the CDU operates in Germany’s other 15 states.
The Union leads polls ahead of environmentalist Greens, who named Annalena Baerbock on Monday as their first candidate to become chancellor. The struggling center-left Social Democrats nominated Finance Minister Olaf Scholz as a candidate months ago.
Laschet, a son of miners from Aachen, a city on the border of Germany with Belgium and the Netherlands, served as a member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2005.
He was elected governor of North Rhine-Westphalia in 2017, a traditional center-left fortress.
Fans often point to victory when asked about his poor polls – along with his success in the race to lead Merkel’s party, in which he beat conservative favorite Friedrich Merz.
They also emphasize his conciliatory nature. Laschet rules his home region in a coalition with the pro-affairs Free Democrats, but can probably work smoothly with a partner further left. Current polls suggest the Greens may hold the key to forming the next government, even if Baerbock does not win the election.
Yet Laschet – whose centrist politics are largely in line with Merkel’s pragmatic approach – has yet to have a honeymoon. as CDU leader. In recent weeks, he has been criticized for appearing to be able to manage a revival in cases of coronavirus, while Soeder has cultivated an image as a decisive support for tough action. Last month, the CDU lost two state elections.
National polls have shown that the Union is giving up the gains it has made thanks to Merkel’s management of the early stages of the pandemic. There was dissatisfaction with a slow start to Germany’s vaccination campaign and a scandal over the alleged profitability of some union legislators last year.
Laschet said on Tuesday that lifesaving is the top priority in the coming weeks and months, but “people expect politicians to think beyond today.”
“We need to become better, faster and more modern as a country,” he said. “It was necessary anyway, but it is even more necessary after the pandemic – more innovation, more confidence, less bureaucracy.”
Laschet, who served as Secretary of State for the Integration of Immigrants in the late 2000s, also stressed that “we should see diversity as an opportunity and not as a threat.”
Laschet emphasizes his credentials for the European Union and says a Germany under his leadership will have a firm belief in multilateral solutions. ‘