For the first time, after the historical defeat of the Christian-Democratic Union to the legislative, the 400,000 members of the Conservative Party will designate their new Chief, replacing Armin Laschet.
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Consult the base to get up from the shock of the debacle. Sounded by its historical defeat in the German parliamentary elections of 26 September, the Christian-Democratic Union (CDU) goes, for the first time, to elect its president by all its 400,000 members and not by its only 1,001 delegates (frames and elected officials), as is usually. The winner will be invested at a congress that will take place on 21 and 22 January 2022 in Hanover (Lower Saxony).
taken by the party management, Tuesday, November 2, this decision had been expected since a majority of the 350 secretaries of section, meeting Saturday in Berlin, had been favorable to that all the members designate the Successor of Armin Leschet, who had announced his departure from the party presidency, in early October, after the victory of the Social Democrat (SPD) to the legislative elections. “I think it’s a good solution to allow the party to know a new beginning,” said Mr Laschet, Tuesday, during a brief press conference.
Merkel’s upset candidates
If no claimant has yet officially declared, two personalities do not make mystery of their ambitions: Friedrich Merz, 65, herald the right wing of the party, and Norbert Röttgen, 56 years old, of more centrist sensitivity . Unfortunate candidates in the Presidency of the Party, in January, the two men have in common, in addition to being Catholics and elected North Rhine-Westphalia, like Armin Leschet, for seeing their career annoyed by Angela Merkel During the reign of this one at the head of the CDU (2000-2018). In 2002, Friedrich Merz had been shown by the Presidency of the Parliamentary Group and Norbert Röttgen was limited from his position as Minister of the Environment by Chancellor, in 2012.
While three other names also circulate – those of the Minister of Health, Jens Spahn, the Group President at Bundestag, Ralph Brinkhaus, and MP Carsten Linnemann, Spokesperson for SMEs within the CDU -, List of candidates should be known quite quickly. According to the advertised roadmap Tuesday, these should, in fact, make known before November 17th. Then the ballots will be sent to the members at the beginning of December for a first round whose results will be announced on December 17, before a possible second round, which will take place between December 28 and January 14, a week before the investiture conference.
Among the leaders of the party, some have not hidden they would have preferred a tighter schedule. First, because they are worried about seeing the CDU stay too long without rudder while the “Tricolore fire” coalition of the Social Democrat Olaf Scholz and its green and liberal allies (FDP) must take the reins of the government in the week of December 6th. Then, because they feel that the CDU has no time to lose in too long internal debates if it wants to be ready for the three regional elections of the spring 2022 – on March 27 in the Sarre, on May 8 in the Schleswig-Holstein and May 15 in North Rhine-Westphalia. Three regions chaired by Christians-Democrats and whose conservation is a crucial issue in the reconstruction process that undertakes after the rout of their party to the last legislative laws.