Germany Race to succeed Angela Merkel: CDU leader takes the helm and leads his Bavarian rival to leave
The Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Chancellor
Angela Merkel's party,
today ratified its support for the centrist
Armin Laschet
as a candidate for the German Chancellery in the next general elections, sources from that formation reported.
The CDU federal board gave clear support to Laschet, leader of the party, in a videoconference called to resolve the conflict between him and the right-wing
Markus Söder,
leader of the Bavarian Social Christian Union (CSU) and also an aspiring candidate. conservative block assembly.
In a secret ballot,
Laschet obtained the vote of 31 members
of that union, while 9 were in favor of Söder and 6 abstained.
The journey began as the beginning of the end of a sibling fight.
The first step towards reconciliation was taken by the leader of the CSU Söder, already convinced that Laschet will not give him the candidacy for the Chancellery.
Söder had not yet risen from the table, but he had made the gesture.
In their own way.
"I will respect what the CDU says, which is the older sister, how could it be otherwise,"
Söder said after the meeting with his executive to report on the status of the talks with the CDU and analyze the strategy to follow. Letters up his sleeve are few and far between and he has to save some to save face. "The important thing is to join forces to win the elections. If the candidate is Armin Laschet, he will have my full support. If it is me, I hope the same," he said.
Less belligerent than a week ago, when Söder made public his aspirations to the Chancellery challenging Laschet and therefore the CDU as a whole, the only party of the conservative bloc with federal implantation, the Bavarian leader appeared before the press to reiterate, what according to him, it is only an offer. Of course, he repeated that in a modern representative democracy, the decisions and, among them, logically the appointment of candidates by the political parties, should be open to the bases and take into account the preferences of the electorate.
In other words, Söder questioned the CDU's candidate nomination procedure as a sovereign formation. With the polls in his favor in the face of the weakness of Laschet's values, the Bavarian stoked fear among the deputies of the CDU that they would lose their seat if the Union did not go to the elections with a powerful candidate and suggested the "older sister "to listen to the rank and file and seek a majority.
"We are not playing with who to govern, but if we can govern,"
was the phrase he launched as a seed of discord.
His underground call for rebellion within the CDU worked. The nervousness to lose the mandate was installed in the parliamentary group of the CDU, which according to the latest polls could lose up to 98 seats. By letter or before the cameras, many deputies of the CDU saw in Söder the saving candidate and they spoke in his favor. The presiding ministers of the CDU and the barons also entered the rag in an increasingly toxic debate. Some bet on him, others on Laschet, and others simply regretted that the procedure for the election of the common candidate was not properly detailed or wished for a prompt solution. Even the party's youth section, Junge Union, issued a statement on Sunday night defeating Söder's candidacy. Almost everyone who is spoke except Chancellor Angela Merkel,that he has taken his neutrality in the matter to such an extreme that his silence is suspicious. It is not understood that Merkel passively assists the CSU attack on the president of her party and the party itself, which she led and represents in the Chancellery.
Sunday was the date that Söder and Laschet had set as the deadline to resolve the dispute. Late in the afternoon today, Söder traveled in a private jet from Munich to Berlin, from where Laschet has been managing the open crisis in the CDU these days. The intense conversations that both had in all possible formats were in vain. Söder returned to Bavaria and Laschet to his office in Adenauer Haus, the CDU's headquarters.
None had given their arm to twist
. Söder out of ambition and arrogance. Laschet for obligation and survival. For him, elected president of the CDU in January in a very close race with Friedrich Merz, resigning Söder's candidacy implies resignation. Questioned his leadership and authority as a candidate by those among his ranks who positioned themselves for Söder, the consequence of Laschet's fall would imply an implosion for the CDU and there are many internal divisions in the party. Söder, on the other hand, can remain in his Bavarian fiefdom as the hero who wanted to guarantee power for the Union and was not allowed to. Anyway, that gesture would even give him income to recover the vote he lost in the last regional elections, the first that the CSU did not win by an absolute majority.
The tone of Laschet and Söder's public speeches changed in the middle of the morning.
Laschet, taking advantage of the nomination of Annalena Baerbock as candidate for Los Verdes, summoned the press at the doors of the CDU headquarters to congratulate him and, incidentally, send a message to Söder.
"I congratulate Mrs. Baerbock on her candidacy and I anticipate that the CDU electoral campaign will be fair and clean. We cannot fight ourselves in times as difficult as a pandemic or create divisions in the population. We have seen it in the United States, victim of a social polarization that the new president (Joe Biden) will have to heal, "he declared.
Laschet gave no option to questions but answered all those that were in the air. "This afternoon the presidium of the CDU will hold a meeting to address the question of the candidacy and I am sure that there will be a decision shortly. I will present an offer to unblock the situation and I await a vote from the executive who, as you know, represents to the entire party because all the party's flanks have representation in that body, "Laschet said, rejecting, once again, Söder's suggestion that the CDU should listen to all opinions before making a decision.
The proposal, it became known later, was to consult the bases if Söder in the CSU did the same.
Laschet ended his statement by inviting Söder to join the presidium meeting by videoconference
, a spear that the Bavarian already dodged in Munich.
"The discussions are held as a family and it does not seem right to me to attend them", was the way in which the Bavarian Prime Minister verbalized his refusal to participate in a decisive session.
"I will respect the decision of the CDU by whatever channels it may be because it is not my responsibility to impose election procedures on sovereign formations," he said.
The decision, which he has been questioning for weeks, was made informally ten days ago.
Laschet is the candidate.
The meeting, however, took place differently, it was turbulent.
According to participants in it, resistance to Laschet has increased within the CDU and more barons are asking to involve the rank and file.
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