Already very weakened and under pressure since the defeat of his camp in the legislative elections of September 26, Armin Laschet has just thrown in the towel: the leader of the German conservatives said he was ready on Thursday October 7 to leave the head of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU): "We will quickly address the issue of the new CDU team, from the president to the presidium and up to the federal executive committee," he assured in Berlin.

Less than a year after taking the head of Angela Merkel's party in pain, Armin Laschet told reporters that he was going to request the holding of a CDU congress, the date and place of which remain to be determined. , in order to decide "the future and the reorganization" at the head of the party. "Since Angela Merkel's withdrawal from the presidency of the party we have had an incessant debate" around the direction of the training, he also insisted. According to the daily Bild, this congress could be held during the first half of December in Dresden.

The 60-year-old Rhenish, renowned for his tenacity, had been chosen by the Tories as the potential successor to Angela Merkel, who had announced that she would not run for a fifth term and who will step down once the new coalition is formed.

Infographic Merkel © Graphic Studio France Media World

Armin Laschet is held personally responsible for the worst electoral score (24.1%) ever achieved by the conservatives in the history of modern Germany.

And for good reason, for many observers, Angela Merkel's foal has since appeared on borrowed time.

A "Jamaica" or "tricolor" coalition?

Hardly elected head of the Christian Democratic Union CDU in January, he then had to fight with Markus Söder, head of the CSU, the Bavarian avatar of the CDU to be the Conservatives' candidate for chancellery.

Author of a failed campaign despite the involvement of Angela Merkel at the last minute, Armin Laschet continues to insist that a so-called "Jamaica" coalition (black from the CDU, yellow from the Liberals and the Greens) remains possible.

"The (coalition) Jamaica is a chance for a real new start in our country," he added.

But the ecologists and the liberals, respectively third and fourth in the ballot, are conducting preliminary discussions with the SPD with a view to forming a coalition government quickly and thus avoiding a long feared paralysis throughout Europe.

At the end of a first round of discussions Thursday, the formations decided to meet again on Monday for in-depth talks which will continue on Tuesday and then Friday.

None of the parties, however, wanted to say when these discussions could lead to the formation of a so-called "traffic light" coalition (red of the SPD, green of the ecologists, yellow of the liberals).

Significant obstacles still stand in the way of an alliance, particularly on tax issues.

But in the event of agreement on the main lines of a future alliance, the three parties will then begin coalition negotiations as such.

All nevertheless repeated that they wanted to go quickly: the leader of the SPD, Olaf Scholz, who would become chancellor in the event of an alliance, had assured on election night that he wanted a government "before Christmas".

The CDU ready to move into the opposition?

Since the defeat of the CDU on September 26, Armin Laschet's internal rivals, such as Friedrich Merz or Jens Spahn, who defend a line more to the right, are in position for the succession. Markus Söder, the head of the Bavarian CSU, was right after the general election. The decision is "a clear rejection of the Jamaican coalition", he had analyzed, judging that for the conservatives "a period for which we must prepare" opened, a probable cure of opposition after sixteen years of Merkel era .

On Wednesday, on the sidelines of an EU-Balkans summit, the Chancellor herself had showered conservative hopes, noting that her camp did not have "the best electoral result" to be able to claim to form a coalition.

At the end of the first meeting of the Conservative deputies in the Bundestag, the leader of the parliamentary group, a close friend of Armin Laschet, had only been re-elected for six months, and not one year as is the practice.

A sign that the CDU / CSU camp was anticipating its passage in the opposition and a reshuffle of its teams.

The "Jamaica" team is far from being the preferred option by the Germans: 53% want a coalition between SPD, Greens and FDP, and 74% believe that the CDU-CSU should withdraw into the opposition, according to a Forsa poll released Wednesday.

With AFP

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