Union chancellor candidate Armin Laschet (CDU) has relativized his claim to the chancellorship.
At the meeting of the federal executive committee on Monday, Laschet said according to groups of participants, "Nobody can derive a government claim from the election result, I didn't say that on Sunday either".
The CDU chairman merely declared his readiness to form a government if the SPD with the Greens and FDP should not succeed.
"We are ready for other constellations if the traffic lights don't work."
According to information from the FAZ, Laschet said that the Union had to prepare for this case and be ready. As a Union, one has to exude such a “willingness”. The CDU chairman reported that he had a long conversation with FDP chairman Christian Lindner on Sunday, and that on Monday he would speak to Annalena Baerbock, chairwoman of the Greens. Laschet admitted to having made personal mistakes in the election campaign, including organizational ones. Regardless of whether the CDU governs or not, the errors have to be dealt with.
Similar to Laschet, according to participants, the CSU chairman Markus Söder made a statement on Monday in a meeting of the party executive committee. Accordingly, Söder said that after the election losses, the Union cannot lay claim to the leadership of the federal government. However, you make an offer for talks. However, there will be no “ingratiation at any price” from the Greens and the FDP.
Before Laschet and Söder's statements, a discussion had broken out as to whether the Union, as the second largest party, could claim the chancellery. Also within the CDU there was criticism of the behavior of the party leadership after the election defeat. Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer said on Monday morning that the election result was an earthquake and that there was a very clear change in mood against the CDU. You have to admit that very clearly. The attitude in the Adenauer House in Berlin to speak of a government mandate therefore does not reveal itself to him, said Kretschmer in the MDR. This line is exactly on the previous course that led to the crash of the Union, and is not sustainable.
Social Democrats also expressed sharp criticism of the attitude of the CDU leadership. "Nobody can be prevented from having talks," said SPD chairman Norbert Walter-Borjans on Monday on Deutschlandfunk. However, if you get “by far second”, you have the opportunity to form a government, “but you don't have the moral right”. The SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil made a similar statement. The Union and Laschet are the “big losers” of the election, he said in the ARD's morning magazine - and that “certainly not a government mandate”. The Federal Managing Director of the Greens, Michael Kellner, said on Monday: "The people want Olaf Scholz as Chancellor, not Armin Laschet."
Health Minister Jens Spahn, one of the five CDU deputy chairmen, on Monday morning, on the other hand, reaffirmed the willingness of his party to actively reach for the Chancellery. “We are now practically on a par with the SPD, some people no longer thought that was possible. We want to continue to lead the government, ”Spahn told Spiegel magazine. At the same time he said that the result would "have to be worked up" and called for a generation change: the next generation after the outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel must now ensure "that we will find our old strength in the next decade".
As examples for younger politicians, Spahn named the Prime Ministers Tobias Hans in Saarland and Daniel Günther in Schleswig-Holstein, the economic politician Carsten Linnemann and the CDU deputy chairman Silvia Breher.
The latter itself turned against staff discussions before talks about a new federal government on Monday.
"We will analyze the result and first see that we can bring about a coalition - we will see everything else then," said Breher in the morning magazine when asked about the future of Chancellor candidate Laschet, should he not be able to forge a Jamaica alliance.