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CDU leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has asked her successor candidates to treat her candidacy responsibly. “That a selection of good candidates turns into a ruinous competition is the responsibility of each individual,” she said in an interview on the ZDF program “Berlin direkt” on Sunday. “Everybody has to think about setting an example of whether they are fit to take on higher management responsibility.”
In early December, the new CDU president will be elected at a party conference in Stuttgart. The former leader of the parliamentary group Friedrich Merz, the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet, and the foreign policy expert Norbert Röttgen are running. Kramp-Karrenbauer does not believe that there is still a friendly solution in the race for the top job.
Since all the candidates had declared that they wanted to participate in the party congress, it was a “hypothetical and theoretical discussion, and then it was not necessary to continue it.” An amicable solution remains the wish of the party. “But it is up to the candidates themselves if they agree and so far I have at least no sign that this is the case.”
Despite the crisis in the crown, Kramp-Karrenbauer assumes that the party conference can take place in December as planned with a presidential election. “If it’s somehow possible, we will do it and we want to do it,” he said. The CDU will organize the party congress maintaining its role as a role model and in accordance with what the authorities approve. For this, it is convenient to propose a wide variety of formats. The CDU board will then decide more precisely in two weeks.
Kramp-Karrenbauer mentioned the possibility of shortening the meeting of delegates so that monitoring issues and hygiene standards can be observed. There is a whole range of possibilities and digital formats should also be taken into account.
Meanwhile, Laschet said in the “Neue Westfälische” (Monday edition) that in the future he would not dislike a grand coalition at the federal level. “I think the current grand coalition is working well; it has proved its worth in the pandemic crisis,” said the prime minister of North Rhine-Westphalia. When asked which alliance he liked more personally, one with the SPD or one with the Greens, he said “one with the FDP.” Laschet said the CDU presidency was also associated with a “general willingness” to run for chancellor. But it applies: “After the election of the president, we will discuss the candidate for chancellor with the CSU.”
