Germany’s ruling party launches general elections, Merkel’s "successor candidate" arouses concern

　　China News Agency, Berlin, January 15 (Reporter Peng Dawei) On the evening of the 15th local time, the 33rd party congress of the German ruling CDU opened in Berlin.

Affected by the new crown epidemic, the entire two-day party congress was held online.

Since the new party chairman elected by the current party congress will be likely to participate in the German general election in September this year as a candidate for the CDU, the voting results on the 16th have attracted attention from all parties.

　　Affected by the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in 2020, the CDU party congress, which was supposed to be held in April last year, was postponed twice, and it was finally confirmed to be held online on January 15-16.

This is also the first time that a major German party has held an online party congress.

Data map: German Chancellor Merkel.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Peng Dawei

　　German Chancellor Merkel, who has announced that he will no longer seek re-election, said in her speech that day that the world has undergone tremendous changes during her 15 years in power.

She said that when she became prime minister for the first time in 2005, “there was no smart phone at the time, and Nokia was still the leader in the mobile phone market. Social media was just a new thing. At that time, China’s economic aggregate was still behind Germany. The total amount has reached nearly four times that of Germany."

　　Merkel said that a series of major challenges have shaped her 15-year career as a prime minister: from the 2008 global financial crisis, the European debt crisis to the refugee crisis, and now the new crown epidemic.

She hopes that the representatives participating in the election can make the right choice and find the right answer to the future issues facing the CDU.

　　According to the agenda, the three candidates participating in the party chairmanship will give speeches to all representatives on the morning of the 16th, and then enter the online voting session.

If the winner cannot be selected in the first round of voting, the second round of voting will be entered.

　　The three candidates are the current governor of North Rhine-Westphalia, the current governor of North Rhine-Westphalia (59 years old), the current chairman of the Bundestag Foreign Affairs Committee Rotgen (55 years old), and the former chairman of the Bundestag Union Party Caucus Merz (65 years old).

All three are men and all come from North Rhine-Westphalia, which ranks first in Germany in terms of population and economic output.

　　Before the opening of the party congress, the three candidates had held two rounds of televised debates, expounding their political views to party members and the public.

The three candidates have promised to accept the results of online voting.

　　However, analysts generally believe that the party congress has not yet been able to determine the final candidate for the prime minister.

First of all, according to the CDU’s charter, the party’s new chairman will not automatically become a candidate for prime minister, but needs to be decided by the party after consultation with its sister party CDU.

In the previous general elections in the Federal Republic of Germany, the CDU and CDU formed a "Alliance Party" to jointly win seats in the Bundestag.

　　Secondly, according to the results of the latest authoritative poll "German Trends" published on the 7th of this month, the three candidates have not won more than half of the support rate among CDU supporters and ordinary German voters.

In contrast, the Bavarian governor of Bavaria Soder, the governor of Bavaria, who has repeatedly "one step ahead" in the fight against the epidemic in the past year, has a satisfaction rate of 57% in polls and is among the major German political figures. Second only to Merkel at 72%.

Recently, there has been a lot of discussion about whether Sodell will become the candidate for the next prime minister.

　　According to the established schedule, at around 15:00 local time on the 16th, the new party chairman elected by 1001 representatives of the CDU will make a public appearance and give a speech.

By then, people will be able to glimpse more clear signals about the direction of the German election.

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