Laschet led his conservative party and the union with the CSU in the September election.
But the result was disastrous for the Union, which admittedly became the second largest, but the result was the worst so far.
Laschet tells party comrades that the party needs a fresh start after the election loss, when the union CDU / CSU received 24.1 percent, a decrease of 8.8 percentage points compared to the 2017 election.
"If it goes better with someone else"
According to sources in the German Welt, Laschet, speaking of initiating a change of leadership, has the following expression: "If it goes better with someone else, happily"
Laschet, from the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, was criticized internally even before the election.
He was also challenged as chancellor candidate for the union by the Bavarian sister party CSU's leader Markus Söder.
Negotiations are ongoing
A possible message from Laschet comes at the same time as government negotiations are underway, but completely without the CDU / CSU.
On Wednesday, the Green and Liberal FDP announced that they are starting discussions with the Social Democrats (SPD) and the party's chancellor candidate, current Finance Minister Olaf Scholz.
According to Welt, the CDU leader must have put his own ambitions aside in favor of succeeding in cooperating with the Greens and the FDP - the so-called Jamaica alliance, which refers to the colors of the three parties that correspond to the flag of the Caribbean island state.