In the debate about a new CDU chairman, there has been new, unexpected movement.

Apparently, Chancellery Minister Helge Braun, a member of the Hessian CDU, can imagine applying to succeed the outgoing chairman.

He doesn't seem determined yet.

The Hessian CDU regional association wants to advise on Friday.

The FAZ learned this from CDU circles.

Eckart Lohse

Head of the parliamentary editorial office in Berlin.

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Julian Staib

Political correspondent for Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland based in Wiesbaden.

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The Hessian CDU politician Michael Meister spoke out in favor of Braun on Wednesday.

"Helge Braun is a clever person with ideas for the future," said Meister to the editorial network in Germany.

He can "formulate precise messages and penetrate complex issues".

Braun is a close confidante of Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU), especially when it comes to Corona politics, no sheet of paper fit between the two.

He would also otherwise stand for the continuation of the Merkel line in the CDU, should he become chairman.

However, his name has not yet been mentioned in this context.

Although the deadline has been running since Saturday, in which applicants for the chair can register before they then introduce themselves and then the members are questioned, no one has yet publicly decided on a candidacy.

Merz, Röttgen, Spahn and Brinkhaus

However, there are enough indications that the North Rhine-Westphalian CDU members of the Bundestag Friedrich Merz and Norbert Röttgen are seriously considering a candidacy.

The names of the CDU federal politicians Jens Spahn and Ralph Brinkhaus, who also come from North Rhine-Westphalia, are occasionally mentioned.

Merz had already tried to become chairman in 2018 and 2020 and only just failed in each case.

In the Merz camp, the personality of Braun could be seen as an attempt by the Chancellery to prevent Merkel's course from becoming critical Merz CDU chairman and fundamentally changing the party's line.

Last Saturday, at the same time as the Minister of State in the Chancellery, Hendrik Hoppenstedt, who belongs to the Lower Saxony CDU, Braun had sent out the signal that there had to be a wide range of options for the election of the new CDU chief.

Braun had said in an interview with the FAZ.

At that time, however, his words could not be understood as an application for his own candidacy.

Hoppenstedt had - also in the FAZ - warned in a guest article against a narrowing to men from North Rhine-Westphalia.

Mood test in Hesse's CDU

The Hessian CDU wants to discuss the election of the federal chairman at a special meeting of the party executive committee on Friday. A spokesman for the party confirmed media reports on Wednesday. Accordingly, the central item on the agenda of the digital meeting on Friday is “Advice on the election of the federal chairman”. The spokesman certainly did not want to comment on possible personal details.

But it is said in the Hesse CDU that Prime Minister Volker Bouffier (CDU) is currently testing the mood and trying to have a recommendation for Braun decided at the meeting on Friday. In the party it is assumed that the procedure has been coordinated with other state associations. It remains to be seen whether there will actually be a vote on a recommendation for Braun. Within the party leadership of the Hesse CDU there are a number of supporters of a candidacy from Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn for the CDU chairmanship.

In the Hessian CDU, the news that Braun could run for office met with a divided response.

In the conservative, business-related part, Braun's possible candidacy is seen as a desperate attempt to secure Bouffiers like Angela Merkel's legacy over the last few meters.

In the more liberal part of the party, however, it is said that Braun's candidacy would be logical, not only Catholic men from North Rhine-Westphalia could run, many of whom stand for a purely economically oriented CDU.

For a long time Braun was also traded as a possible successor to Bouffier for the office of Prime Minister in Hesse.

After the lost federal election, in which Braun also lost his direct mandate in Gießen, he is only expected to have low chances of doing so.