2024-09-22 12:03:25
Markus Söder and Friedrich Merz have reached an agreement. The CDU leader will be the Union’s candidate for chancellor.
According to consistent media reports, CSU leader Markus Söder is giving up the Union’s candidacy for chancellor and is paving the way for CDU leader Friedrich Merz. Both will propose Merz as a candidate, who will then be approved by the committees of both parties, the Reuters news agency learned on Tuesday from two people familiar with the matter.
The two Union politicians have invited people to a joint press conference at the Bavarian representation at 12 noon. The CSU regional group announced this this morning. Söder is expected to announce his withdrawal there and leave the candidacy to Merz.
Most recently, North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst announced on Monday evening that he was not currently available to run for chancellor. At the same time, Wüst, who heads the CDU’s largest regional association, pledged his support to Merz.
Schleswig-Holstein’s Prime Minister Daniel Günther (CDU) has pledged his support to party leader Friedrich Merz as the Union’s candidate for chancellor. “I will do everything in my power to support Friedrich Merz as candidate for chancellor,” said Günther before the start of a joint cabinet meeting of Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia in Kiel. “I want Friedrich Merz to be the next chancellor.”
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) would welcome a candidacy for chancellor by CDU leader Friedrich Merz. “I am happy if Mr Merz is the Union’s candidate for chancellor,” said Scholz in response to a question from a journalist in Astana, Kazakhstan. The chancellor had previously said several times that he would like to see Merz as a challenger in the next federal election.
Merz was elected CDU chairman in January 2022 at the third attempt. The Sauerland native became the third CDU leader within just over three years after Merkel announced in 2018 that she would step down from the party leadership after 18 years. Since then, Merz has united the CDU, which was shocked by its election defeat in 2021, and gave it a new substantive profile with a modernized policy program.
In two previous attempts, the economic expert had lost to Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer in December 2018 and to the later failed candidate for chancellor, Armin Laschet, in January 2021. In May, Merz was confirmed as chairman by a party conference with almost 90 percent.
Before the 2021 federal election, there was a power struggle between Söder and the then CDU chairman Laschet over the K question, which Laschet was ultimately able to win. However, Söder then repeatedly burdened Laschet’s election campaign with public taunts. In the end, the Union lost the federal election – partly because it did not present a united front.
Merz recently warned: “If 2021 repeats itself, then we will have already taken the first step towards losing the next federal election again.”