• Germany Armin Laschet offers his resignation as leader of the CDU

The historic defeat of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the general elections held on September 26 in Germany has led to another unprecedented decision.

The CDU will renew its leadership after consulting the militancy.

"We are opening a new chapter in the party,"

declared the general secretary, Paul Ziemiek after the meeting held this Tuesday by the federal executive to agree on the roadmap to the election of the successor to the amortized Armin Laschet.

The executive had little room for maneuver.

This weekend, the leaders of the 300 regional groups of the CDU voted almost unanimously to ask the rank and file.

The question on the table was not the yes but the how.

And the middle path was chosen, to

prevent the party from entering a minefield,

as some of its illustrious figures warned, including the former Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schäeuble.

The consultation will be indicative and, consequently, non-binding.

The regulations remain intact and the last word is, as it always has been, the 1,001 delegates who make up the federal congress.

Pseudo-primaries will be done

by mail.

The next day the militants will be informed by letters, the corresponding letters will be sent at the beginning of December and the election will be opened.

The result will be known two weeks later, on the 17th.

In the event that there is no clear favorite, a second round will open on December 28, the results of which will be known on January 14.

All in time for the federal congress, which will meet on January 21 and 22 in Hannover to endorse the desire of the bases,

break a tiebreaker or promote the one that best suits the interests

of the regional groups and some of them are very powerful.

The path to congress is defined, but there are no candidates. They shuffled

five

but none have stepped forward. Three are known, as they concurred against Laschet at the time. It would be the former leader of the parliamentary group, Friedrich Merz, the Minister of Health,

Jens Spahn

and the deputy Norbert Röttgen, a member of the parliamentary committee on Foreign Affairs. There are also the candidacies of the incumbent president of the parliamentary group of the Union, Ralph Brinkhaus and the head of the economic wing, Carsten Linnemann.

The profile of these potential candidates is different, except that all five are men and come from the strongest regional grouping in the CDU, that of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The CDU will thus have a president from West Germany, where the CDU is stronger. Merz and Linnemann, his version 20 years younger, are more conservative and those who put more emphasis on the economy.

Laschet, conciliatory until the end,

hopes to be able to stop the consultation before the congress,

making it unnecessary.

"I would not like to see a divided federal congress, with some fighting against others," says the outgoing president, the second failed attempt to lead the party since Chancellor Angela Merkel handed over the reins to Annegret Kramp-Karrembauer just three years ago.

Laschet's wish is unrealistic.

It would require prospective candidates to agree among themselves and park their ambition in favor of just one.

"I know it's complicated, but we're going to try," says Laschet, who never gives up until the facts get over him.

This happened when, even having lost the elections in favor of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), he said he was willing to try to form a government.

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