display
Chancellor Angela Merkel did not vote for Armin Laschet in the decisive vote of the CDU federal executive committee on Monday evening. Although Merkel was involved in the meeting and also entitled to vote, the former CDU federal chairman did not participate in the vote of the body, according to information from "Spiegel". CDU boss Laschet won the vote with 31 votes to nine with six abstentions, which results in 46 votes. A total of 47 board members are entitled to vote - the missing vote was Merkel's.
Even before Armin Laschet and CSU boss Markus Söder had both declared their application for the Union's candidacy for chancellor on April 11, CDU party vice-president Volker Bouffier asked the chancellor to express her support for Laschet.
Merkel refused this and later publicly affirmed that she wanted to remain neutral in the competition.
All developments in the live ticker