Paul Ziemiak almost forgot the necessary formality when he gave the floor to the winner in the competition for the CDU chairmanship: “We still have to ask whether Friedrich Merz will accept this nomination.” He did it immediately and then praised the “ impressive level of voter turnout.

It is "a great result of a party that lives".

Merz received 62.1 percent of the votes in the survey;

Norbert Röttgen comes second with 25.8 percent, Helge Braun comes third with 12.1.

Johannes Leithäuser

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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Eckart Lohse

Head of the parliamentary editorial office in Berlin.

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The member survey lasted two weeks;

Party members could both participate online (and save their party's postage costs) and give their judgment in writing.

According to the Adenauer House, a total of 248,360 party members took part, which corresponds to a participation rate of 66 percent.

The number of online voters, at 53.4 percent, was slightly higher than those who voted by letter, at 46.6 percent.