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In just under three weeks, the CDU wants to elect a new party leader at its online party conference. A decision that has not yet been made there: Who is the Union presenting as a candidate for chancellor for the next federal elections. Now a discussion has broken out in the CDU about who has the “right of access” to the candidate position and when he can exercise it.
In the past, the head of the CDU often had the right to run for chancellor, and the sister party CSU submitted. North Rhine-Westphalia Prime Minister Armin Laschet, former Union parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz and former Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen have run as party leader. All three could be candidates for chancellor. In the Union, however, there are more and more voices in favor of the head of the CSU: the Prime Minister of Bavaria, Markus Söder.
“Before anything is proclaimed, we talk to each other,” said Merz of the dpa news agency. “I am not one of those who say: access rights. Nobody has the right of access. “The CDU and the CSU are equal partners, albeit different in size, in a parliamentary group. When asked if Söder could also be chancellor, Merz said: “There are at least two prime ministers in Germany who, according to the job description, are always eligible. These are that of North Rhine-Westphalia and that of Bavaria. “
Postpone question K until March
More recently, Saarland Prime Minister Tobias Hans had demanded that the new CDU president quickly decide who would be the candidate for chancellor. The party president has a task on question K: “and, of course, the first right of access to the candidacy for chancellor.” Following the election of the CDU president, Hans said there would be “clarity quickly.”
CDU president Merz is also in favor of a quick fix, but would be ready for a postponement if necessary. “There are also good arguments to say that we should do this together with the CSU at a later time.” After his possible election as president of the CDU, he would speak calmly with the president of the CSU, Söder, about the calendar for the election of candidates.
Söder and Laschet had recently asked for more time before the holidays. The Union should only elect its joint chancellor candidate after the crown crisis, Söder told the dpa news agency: “In my opinion, it would be wrong in the middle of the pandemic. Only after this has subsided, or in the spring, when the land comes into view again, it makes sense to make this personal decision. “
The decision would only be made after the March state elections in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate, and only six months before the upcoming federal elections in September.
