BERLIN (AP) – Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right party elected Armin Laschet, the pragmatic governor of Germany’s most populous state, as its new leader on Saturday – sending a signal of continuity a few months before elections in which voters will decide who will become the new chancellor.
Laschet defeated Friedrich Merz, a conservative and rival of Merkel, at an online convention of the Christian Democratic Union. Laschet won 521 votes over Merz’s 466. A third candidate, prominent parliamentarian Norbert Roettgen, was eliminated in a first round of voting.
Saturday’s vote is not the last word on who will run as center-right candidate for chancellor in Germany’s Sept. 26 election, but Laschet will either run for chancellor or have a big say in who he does.
Merkel, who has been chancellor since 2005, announced in late 2018 that she would not seek a fifth term. He also resigned from the CDU leadership.
The decision puts an end to 11 months of leadership in Germany’s strongest party after outgoing leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who failed to impose party authority, announced his resignation. A vote on her successor has been postponed twice due to the coronavirus pandemic.
There were no clear favorites to enter Saturday’s convention, but Merz’s election would have marked at least a symbolic break with the Merkel era. Laschet will now have to work to ensure the unity of the party.
Laschet, 59, was elected governor of North Rhine-Westphalia in 2017, a traditional center-left fortress. He governs the region in a coalition of pro-business free democrats, the traditional right-wing ally of the CDU, but could probably work fairly smoothly with a more liberal partner. Current polls indicate green environmentalists as a possible key to power in elections.
Laschet on Saturday highlighted the value of continuity and moderation and cited the assault on the US Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump as an example of where deliberate polarization can lead.
“Confidence is what keeps us moving and what has been broken in America,” he told delegates before the vote. “By polarizing, sowing discord and mistrust and lying systematically, a president has destroyed stability and trust.”
“We need to speak clearly, but not polarize,” Laschet said. “We must be able to integrate, to keep society united.”
He said the party needed “continuity of success” and “we will only win if we remain strong in society.”
Laschet said that “there are many people who, above all, consider Angela Merkel good and only then the CDU”. He added that “now we need this trust as a party” and that “we must work for this trust.”
Saturday’s result will now be officially approved in a postal vote – which is expected to be a formality, but is required by German law.
The CDU is part of the Union bloc alongside the Christian Social Union only in Bavaria, and the two parties will decide together the center-right candidate for chancellor. The Union currently has a healthy poll, helped by positive reviews of how Merkel has dealt with the pandemic.
CSU leader Markus Soeder, the 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 chosen as one of his deputies, a possible competitor.
Polls have shown that Soeder’s ratings are higher than those of Saturday’s CDU candidates. Laschet received mixed reviews in the pandemic, especially as a vocal supporter of reducing restrictions after the first phase last year.
You should not expect a honeymoon as a CDU leader. This year also has 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 energy and ending military recruitment.
His 2015 decision to allow a large number of migrants led to center-right divisions and strengthened the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which entered the German parliament two years later.
The alternative for German co-leader Joerg Meuthen said Laschet’s election meant that the CDU “will continue Merkeling” and said his party “remains the only conservative party in Germany”.