Laschet Grabs Lifeline in Fight to Succeed Merkel in Germany

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Laschet Grabs Lifeline in Fight to Succeed Merkel in Germany

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Arne Delfs
·3 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- Armin Laschet won a vote among the leadership of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union in the early hours of Tuesday to revive his faltering bid to succeed her as chancellor.

Laschet, the head of the CDU, won the backing of 31 out of 46 members of his party’s top committee in a ballot to determine who should lead the center-right bloc into September’s national election, according to a person familiar with the outcome.

His rival, Bavarian State Premier Markus Soeder, won just nine votes with six abstentions, a result that may give 60-year-old Laschet the edge in their contest. While Laschet has lost significant support since the committee gave him unanimous backing a week ago, Soeder said on Monday that he would accept a clear CDU vote in favor of Laschet.

With polls showing Soeder would give the CDU/CSU a significant advantage with voters, officials and activists from Laschet’s party have been breaking ranks to back Bavarian but Laschet refused to capitulate. Soeder declined an invitation to attend the meeting which began Monday evening.

During the session numerous CDU officials -- including Economy Minister Peter Altmaier, a close Merkel ally -- spoke out in favor of Soeder, damaging Laschet’s authority over a party that elected him leader only in January.

Earlier in the day, Laschet insisted he wanted to resolve the standoff over the CDU/CSU candidacy “very swiftly.” Polls project that Germany’s conservatives are heading for their worst ever election result, losing support to the Greens, who nominated Annalena Baerbock as their candidate on Monday.

“The goal is to win this election and that will only be possible with a great deal of unity and a single candidate,” Laschet told reporters earlier in Berlin.

Laschet’s chances were dented on Sunday when the CDU’s youth wing voted in favor of Soeder. Three CDU state premiers -- from Saxony-Anhalt, Saarland and Saxony -- have also broken ranks with the rest of the party leadership and put their weight behind the Bavarian.

Yet Laschet refused to fold and Soeder has failed to deliver a knock out blow that would decide the contest, despite appearing to seize the momentum over the weekend.

The son of a coal mining foreman, Laschet graduated in law, once edited a Catholic newspaper and was a legislator in the Bundestag as well as the European Parliament before being elected leader of Germany’s most populous state in 2017.

He would be likely to continue Merkel’s centrist policies as well as her low-key style of leadership, if he can claim the nomination and defend his slim advantage going into September’s national vote. Yet he would inherit a raft of new challenges, ranging from overcoming the coronavirus pandemic to managing a transition to green technology and tackling the threats posed by China and Russia.

(Updates with context from fourth paragraph)

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