BERLIN (AP) – Armin Laschet, the governor of Germany’s most populous state, emerged victorious from a devastating power struggle on Tuesday and became the candidate of Angela Merkel’s center-right bloc to succeed the old chancellor in the September elections.
Laschet, 60, now faces another major battle: connecting with voters and winning over frustrated fellow conservatives who backed his more popular rival, Markus Soeder.
Their union bloc was the last major political force to nominate a candidate for chancellor in the September 26 parliamentary elections. Merkel is not looking for a fifth term in office after nearly 16 years in power.
The race turned into a heated duel after both Laschet, the leader of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, and Soeder, who leads the smaller Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, expressed their interest in succeeding Merkel.
Soeder admitted after the CDU leadership backed Laschet in a late-night vote, pledging that “we will support him without resentment, with all our strength.”
“What counts now is which party has the best concepts for the future of our country and who is the best team to face the challenges,” Laschet told reporters in Berlin. “So it is now important for the Union, the CDU and CSU to participate in the election campaign as a team.”
Parts of the CDU were strong for Soeder, while others fiercely opposed his attempt to push Laschet aside for the top job. Soeder has much better polls, but Laschet was elected in January to lead the much larger party. It was primarily a conflict of personality and style rather than policy.
Laschet rules the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia and Soeder the southern state of Bavaria.
Early last week, Laschet informally rallied the CDU leadership behind his bid. But Soeder said the issue should not be resolved “just in a small back room”.
After days of talks failed to resolve but exposed the divisions in the CDU, Soeder said on Monday that the larger party must decide and that he would respect a “clear decision.”
During a turbulent CDU leaders meeting, 31 members voted for Laschet, nine for Soeder and six abstained, dpa news agency reported. That prompted Soeder to admit.
The Union bloc campaigns together in federal elections and has a joint parliamentary group. The CSU only exists in Bavaria, while the CDU runs in the other 15 states of Germany.
The union is leading the polls for the environmentalist Greens, who on Monday nominated Annalena Baerbock as their first candidate to become chancellorThe struggling center-left Social Democrats appointed Finance Minister Olaf Scholz as their candidate months ago.
Laschet, a miner’s son from Aachen, a town on the German border with Belgium and the Netherlands, was a member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2005.
He was elected governor of North Rhine-Westphalia, a traditional center-left stronghold, in 2017.
Supporters often point to that victory when asked about his bad opinion polls – along with his success in the race to lead Merkel’s party, in which he defeated conservative favorite Friedrich Merz.
They also emphasize its conciliatory nature. Laschet rules his home region in a coalition with the pro-business Free Democrats, but could likely work smoothly with a partner further to the left. Current polls suggest the Greens could be the key to forming the next government, even if Baerbock doesn’t win the election.
Yet Laschet – whose centrist politics is largely consistent with Merkel’s pragmatic approach – has not had a honeymoon as a CDU leader. In recent weeks, he has been criticized for appearing to have doubts about how to manage a resurgence of coronavirus cases, while Soeder has cultivated an image as a decisive advocate for tough action. Last month, the CDU lost two state elections
National polls have shown that the Union is giving up on profits thanks to Merkel’s control of the early stages of the pandemic. There was dissatisfaction with a slow start to the German vaccination campaign and a scandal over the alleged profiteering of some Union lawmakers from mask purchase deals last year.
On Tuesday, Laschet said that saving lives in the coming weeks and months is the top priority right now, but “people expect politicians to think beyond today.”
“As a country, we need to get better, faster and more modern,” he said. “That was necessary anyway, but it is even more necessary after the pandemic: more innovation, more confidence, less bureaucracy.”
Laschet, who was his state’s minister for immigrant integration in the late 2000s, also stressed that “we should see diversity as an opportunity and not a threat.”
Laschet stressed his pro-European Union credentials, saying that a Germany under his leadership would have “firm belief in multilateral solutions”.