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It has been called the most important primary election in Europe. The person chosen by the German CDU as its new leader can also succeed Angela Merkel as Chancellor of Germany. Although there was not much debate when the three men who were candidates met for a first official round of questions.
The three candidates in the fight for the leadership of the CDU, from left to right Friedrich Merz, Norbert Röttgen and Armin Laschet.
The fight for leadership in the CDU has become a long story due to the pandemic.
Since Angela Merkel stepped down as party president in December 2018, her “crown princess” Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has had time to take office and announce her resignation. The planned congresses have been postponed several times.
When the three candidates Armin Laschet, Friedrich Merz and Norbert Röttgen met on Monday night for a first official showdown, the mood was far more affable than German newspaper readers might have been impressed during the fall, when Merz attacked. repeatedly to the “party establishment”, which considers opposing his chances of becoming president.
– During the super-election year 2021, I want to assume the leadership of the CDU, and I am full of motivation, energy and concrete ideas of how we should move the country forward, said Merz, who has been away from politics for years, but sailed like the members’ favorite, with its sometimes harsh right-wing criticism of Merkel’s central line.
The former leader of the group, who was maneuvered by Merkel in the early 2000s and has worked in business ever since, spoke after a green transformation of the social market economy, which is the hallmark of the party. However, Merz is considered the most conservative of the candidates and is not a fan of the Green Party, which many observers believe could be part of a governing coalition with the CDU after the 2021 elections.
Merkelmannen Laschet, who is head of government in Germany’s most populous state in North Rhine-Westphalia, also worked to broaden his image of himself and appear attractive to the more conservative parts of the party.
– We need a politics oriented to values, affirmed the politician of the center, to later paint himself as a family man and talk about his wife and three children.
Röttgen, who stands little chance of winning against the infantry favorites Merz and Merkel and party candidate Laschet, in turn pushed forward with his decades of experience in both parliamentary and government work, and reiterated his ambition to rejuvenate. the match.
For many, the brightest star, Health Minister Jens Spahn, is not running with his own candidacy, but has joined Laschet’s campaign. Some now speculate that he could take a step forward if Laschet underperformed at the party’s online January 15-16 meeting and ran for office in the second round of elections, which is held by mail.
The second round of talks will be held on January 8.
Great party with Christian views
The CDU – Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands – is a Christian Democratic party. The party is one of the traditionally dominant parties in Germany. The second are the Social Democrats (SPD).
The CDU was led between 2000 and 2018 by Angela Merkel. The list of former party leaders includes, among others, the first leader of the Federal Republic, Konrad Adenauer, and the reunification chancellor Helmut Kohl.
Politically, the CDU is a broad bourgeois party with a Christian principle. The party advocates a “social market economy” and is represented in all German federal states except Bavaria, where it has electoral cooperation with the CSU, which is often slightly to the right of the CDU.
