BERLIN (AP) – Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right party on Saturday chose Armin Laschet, the pragmatic governor of Germany’s most populous state, as its new leader, sending a signal of continuity months before an election in which voters will decide who will become the new chancellor.
Laschet defeated Friedrich Merz, a conservative and sole rival of Merkel, at an online convention of the Christian Democratic Union. Laschet obtained 521 votes against the 466 of Merz. A third candidate, prominent lawmaker Norbert Roettgen, was eliminated in a first round of voting.
Saturday’s vote is not the last word on who will run as a center-right candidate for chancellery in the German election on September 26, but Laschet will run in the chancellery or have a big say in who does it.
Merkel, who has been chancellor since 2005, announced in late 2018 that she would not seek a fifth term. He also left the leadership of the CDU.
The decision puts an end to an 11-month leadership limbo in Germany’s strongest party after outgoing leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who had not imposed his authority on the party, announced his resignation. Voting for his successor was delayed twice due to the coronavirus pandemic.
There had been no clear favorite at Saturday’s convention, but Merz’s election would have marked at least a symbolic break with the Merkel era. Laschet will have to work now to achieve party unity.
Laschet, 59, was elected in 2017 as governor of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, a traditional center-left stronghold. He rules the region in a coalition with pro-business free Democrats, a traditional CDU ally on the right, but would probably be able to work fairly smoothly with a more liberal partner. Current polls point to Green environmentalists as a possible key to power in elections.
Laschet noted Saturday the value of continuity and moderation and cited the storm of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump as an example of where deliberate polarization can lead.
“Confidence is what keeps us going and what has been broken in the United States,” he told delegates before the vote. “By polarizing, sowing discord and mistrust and systematically lying, a president has destroyed stability and trust.”
“We need to speak clearly but not polarize,” Laschet said. “We need to be able to integrate, keep society together.”
He said the party needs “continuity of success” and “we will only win if we stay strong in the midst of society.”
Laschet said that “there are a lot of people who, above all, find Angela Merkel good and only then the CDU.” He added that “now we need this trust as a party” and that “we must work for this trust.”
Saturday’s result will now be officially approved on a ballot paper, which is expected to be a formality, but one that German law requires.
The CDU is part of the Union bloc along with the Christian Social Union only in Bavaria, and the two parties will decide together on the center-right candidate for chancellor. The Union currently has a healthy leadership of the polls, helped by positive reviews about the treatment of the pandemic by Merkel.
CSU leader Markus Soeder, the governor of Bavaria, is widely considered a potential candidate after winning the political stature during the pandemic. Some also believe that Health Minister Jens Spahn supported Laschet and was elected as one of his deputies, a possible candidate.
Polls have shown that Soeder’s scores exceed those of Saturday’s CDU candidates. Laschet has garnered mixed criticism of the pandemic, especially as a vocal advocate for easing restrictions after the first phase last year.
I shouldn’t expect a big honeymoon as a CDU leader. This year there are also six state elections, the first two in mid-March.
Merkel, now 66, has led Germany and Europe through a series of crises since taking office. It has also repeatedly broken with conservative orthodoxy, for example, accelerating Germany’s exit from nuclear power and ending military recruitment.
His 2015 decision to allow large numbers of migrants led to divisions in the center-right and strengthened the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which entered the German parliament two years later.
Joerg Meuthen, an alternative to Germany’s co-leader, said Laschet’s election means the CDU will “continue Merkeling” and said his party “remains Germany’s only Conservative party”.