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The Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia prevailed against Friedrich Merz in the second round.
The Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet, will succeed Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer as the new head of the CDU. The 59-year-old won on Saturday at the German Christian Democrats’ digital conference in a second round against the former leader of the Union parliamentary group, Friedrich Merz. The decision has yet to be formally confirmed by vote-by-mail.
Laschet received 521 votes, Merz 466 votes. 991 votes were cast, four delegates abstained. In the first ballot, Merz had 385 votes, Laschet 380 votes. The foreign politician Norbert Röttgen obtained 224 votes, being in third place and therefore out of the contest.
Laschet said after the election that he was aware of his responsibility and would do everything he could to ensure the CDU could get through the year successfully and appoint the next chancellor. He thanked outgoing party leader Annegret Kamp-Karrenbauer, as well as Röttgen and Merz for a fair election campaign.
“Tools of the Trade of a Central Policy”
The 59-year-old has been Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2017. In his petition speech at the party congress, he highlighted his experience as head of government. “You have to master the tools of the trade of middle-class politics.” Laschet referred to the negotiations on the exit of coal or the fight against crime in North Rhine-Westphalia. He is the only one of the three applicants to hold a government post.
Also in the power struggle for the presidency of the CDU, Laschet tried to score points with his experience as prime minister, and with a “measure and a half” course. The Aachen miner’s son recently tried to avoid a sharp demarcation with the chancellor and longtime CDU leader (2000-2018), Angela Merkel, who are once again extremely popular with the population.
