2024-09-22 02:00:41
The Union’s candidate for chancellor has been decided: Friedrich Merz will run for the parties in the 2025 federal election. Markus Söder is supporting the CDU leader.
CSU chairman Markus Söder has announced that he will not be running as the Union’s candidate for chancellor. He accepts CDU leader Friedrich Merz as the Union’s joint candidate for chancellor for the 2025 federal election – “and not with gritted teeth,” but with “full support and very high esteem,” Söder said on Tuesday at a press conference with Merz in Berlin. He and Merz wanted to propose the CDU leader as candidate for chancellor to the committees of the two parties next Monday.
“The candidate question has been decided,” said Söder. “Friedrich Merz will do it, I’m fine with that and I expressly support it.” Söder stressed that it is part of the Union parties’ “self-image” that “both party leaders are fundamentally suitable” for the candidacy for chancellor. “As the bigger sister, the CDU clearly has first access,” he added. “Friedrich Merz is making use of it.”
The big common goal is to replace the traffic light coalition in the upcoming federal election, said Söder. “Everything has to be subordinate to that,” he added.
Merz thanked Söder for his support and stressed that this would not be a repeat of the open power struggle within the Union over the candidacy for chancellor in the last election year of 2021. “Today, we are both assuming our leadership responsibility,” said the CDU leader. “We know that this responsibility extends beyond both of us.”
Merz thanked Söder for the “good cooperation” since his election as CDU leader. This cooperation “has not always been easy – not for him and not for me,” Merz added.
According to information from the German Press Agency, the two party leaders met on Tuesday morning in the Bavarian representation in Berlin. CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann and CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt also arrived there in the morning. The time for the press conference was set at short notice that morning.
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) announced on Monday that he was no longer available for the Union’s candidacy for chancellor. He assured Merz of his support.
Wüst, Prime Minister of the most populous federal state and head of the largest CDU regional association, was long considered a potential candidate for the chancellor candidacy of the sister parties CDU and CSU. Merz was considered the favorite and CSU leader Markus Söder had repeatedly reiterated that he was ready to run for chancellor.