BERLIN (AP) – Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right party on Saturday chose Armin Laschet, the pragmatic governor of Germany’s most populous state, as its new leader – sending a signal of continuity months before an election in which voters decide who will be the new chancellor.
Laschet defeated Friedrich Merz, a conservative and former rival of Merkel, at an online Christian Democratic Union convention. Laschet obtained 521 votes against Merz’s 466. A third candidate, prominent lawmaker Norbert Roettgen, was eliminated in the first round.
Saturday’s vote is not the final word on who will run as a center-right candidate for chancellor in the German election on September 26, but Laschet will run for chancellor or have a big voice in who will.
Merkel, who has been chancellor since 2005, announced in late 2018 that she would not run for a fifth term. She also left the CDU leadership.
The decision ends an 11-month leadership limbo in Germany’s strongest party after outgoing leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who failed to impose his authority on the party, announced his resignation. His successor’s vote was postponed twice because of the coronavirus pandemic.
There was no clear favorite to attend Saturday’s convention, but Merz’s election would have marked at least a symbolic break from the Merkel era. Laschet will now have to work to ensure the party’s unity.
Laschet, 59, was elected governor of North Rhine-Westphalia in 2017, a traditional center-left stronghold. He rules the region in a coalition with pro-business free Democrats, the CDU’s traditional ally on the right, but he would probably be able to work seamlessly with a more liberal partner. Current research points to Green environmentalists as a possible key to power in elections.
Laschet pointed out on Saturday the value of continuity and moderation, and cited the takeover of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump as an example of where deliberate polarization can lead.
“Trust is what keeps us moving and what has been broken in America,” he told delegates before the vote. “By polarizing, sowing discord and distrust and systematically lying, a president has destroyed stability and confidence.”
“We must speak clearly, but not polarize,” said Laschet. “We must be able to integrate, keep society together.”
He said that the party needs “continued success” and “we will only win if we remain strong in the midst of society”.
Laschet said that “there are many people who, above all, think Angela Merkel is good and only after that the CDU”. He added that “we need that trust now as a part” and that “we must work for that trust”.
Saturday’s result will now be officially endorsed in a postal vote – which should be a formality, but is required by German law.
The CDU is part of the union bloc together with the Christian Social Union, composed only of Bavaria, and the two parties will decide together the center-right candidate for chancellor. The Union currently has good research leadership, helped by positive reviews of how Merkel handled the pandemic.
CSU leader Markus Soeder, governor of Bavaria, is widely considered a potential candidate after gaining political stature during the pandemic. Some also consider Health Minister Jens Spahn, who supported Laschet and was elected one of his deputies, a possible candidate.
Polls show Soeder’s ratings beat those of CDU candidates on Saturday. Laschet received mixed reviews in the pandemic, particularly as a vocal advocate of loosening restrictions after the first phase of last year.
He shouldn’t expect much from a honeymoon as the leader of the CDU. This year also features six state elections, the first two in mid-March.
Merkel, now 66, has led Germany and Europe through a series of crises since taking office. It has also repeatedly broken with conservative orthodoxy, for example, by accelerating Germany’s exit from nuclear power and ending military recruitment.
His 2015 decision to allow large numbers of migrants led to divisions in the center right and strengthened the alternative right-wing party for Germany, which entered the German parliament two years later.
Alternative to German co-leader Joerg Meuthen said the Laschet election means that the CDU “will continue Merkeling” and said his party “remains the only conservative party in Germany”.