Germany: Armin Laschet elected president of the CDU to continue the Merkel era
Favorable to continuity with Angela Merkel, the moderate Armin Laschet was elected at the head of the CDU.
REUTERS - HANNIBAL HANSCHKE
Text by: RFI Follow
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In Germany, Armin Laschet succeeds Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer as CDU president.
In the running with two other candidates, he was appointed this Saturday morning by the party delegates meeting in congress.
They made the choice of continuity, since this moderate was the candidate of Angela Merkel.
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From our correspondent in Berlin
,
Pascal Thibault
Armin Laschet won with 521 votes against 466 for Friedrich Merz.
The new
CDU
president
embodies the continuity with the Merkel era of which he is a faithful.
This morning he made an emotional speech evoking his minor father and the necessary solidarity.
Armin Laschet, 59, wants to be a reconciler and a team man;
he pleaded for a CDU anchored at the center of the political spectrum in the lineage of Angela Merkel.
Friedrich Merz loses for the second time.
He bowed at the end of 2018 to the outgoing president of the CDU
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer
.
He embodies a CDU more to the right, more conservative on social issues and more liberal on economic issues.
He obtained 47% of the vote which shows once again that the party is divided.
Upcoming elections in the sights
Eight months before the elections, the new president will have to prove that he is a team man.
Will that be enough to be the candidate for chancellery?
We will probably know at the end of March.
If Armin Laschet does not convince, if his mediocre score in the polls does not improve, the CDU could choose with the Bavarian sister party to induct the very popular CSU boss Markus Söder as candidate for the chancellery of the German conservatives.
Nevertheless, Armin Laschet is well placed to defend the colors of the CDU in the next elections, scheduled for September.
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