Stuttgart (AP) - Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble wants to vote for Friedrich Merz at the CDU federal party conference on Saturday.

He announced this on Friday at a preliminary meeting of the delegates from Baden-Württemberg, as the German press agency learned from participants.

The state election will be difficult and the Southwest CDU will have to become number one again, Schäuble is quoted as saying.

He is convinced that one can mobilize the voters in Baden-Württemberg most strongly with the election of Merz as federal party leader.

Schäuble also emphasized that the CDU had three good candidates for the party chairmanship.

The election campaign did not harm the party nor was it self-destructive.