Germany’s Christian Democratic Union party candidate Armin Laschet gesticulates while participating in a discussion at the party’s headquarters in Berlin on January 8, 2021.
CHRISTIAN MANG / POOL / AFP) (Photo by CHRISTIAN MANG / POOL / AFP via Getty Images
FRANKFURT – The German government party CDU chose Armin Laschet to be its new president on Saturday, possibly paving the way for him to replace Angela Merkel as chancellor in this year’s elections.
Laschet is currently the prime minister of the German region of North Rhine-Westphalia, the country’s most populous federal state. He defeated rival Friedrich Merz 521 to 466 in a vote that was forced online due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Born in 1961, he was first elected to the Bundestag (German Parliament) in 1994 and his election is seen as a continuation of Merkel’s policies, as he promised to keep the CDU firmly in the “midst of society”.
With him as president, the CDU will likely stay on the message and focus on more climate change policies and environmental topics. He has a strong Catholic background, which brings him the support of Christian circles within the party.
He is a trained lawyer and also worked as a journalist at the time of German reunification between 1986 and 1991. He is considered very liberal and popular with the immigrant community in his home state.
If he becomes CDU’s candidate for chancellor in the September elections, he may be open to several coalitions – the division of power is a recent tradition in German politics.
He launched the idea of a government alongside the liberals, the FDP, in an attempt to conquer parts of the business field within the CDU. But he is also seen as a natural fit for a coalition with the Greens, as he speaks well with the party and is supportive of environmental issues.
But the CDU candidate for chancellor will not be determined until the spring. And it is not certain that the newly elected president will automatically move to Merkel’s post. Markus Söder, the very popular Bavarian Prime Minister, and also Jens Spahn, the current Minister of Health, can also join the race to lead Europe’s largest economy.
Merkel stepped down as CDU leader in 2018 and her replacement, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, resigned in February 2020 after a series of communication setbacks exposed her as being too weak to lead the chancellery.
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