Race to succeed Merkel in top job thrown wide open
BERLIN: Moderate Armin Laschet may have won a key vote this weekend to become the new leader of Germany’s conservative CDU party, but his victory has thrown wide open the question of who will succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel in the top job.
Merkel ally Laschet was elected as head of the Christian Democratic Union on Saturday in a run-off against right-winger Friedrich Merz, nine months ahead of a general election that will mark the end of the chancellor’s 16-year reign. The head of the CDU would normally lead the party and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU, to the polls as their chancellor candidate in a general election. But Laschet’s poor standing in national polls has prompted speculation that someone other than the CDU leader could be a better choice to lead the conservatives into the election race.
In the run-up to the September 26 vote, with the coronavirus pandemic still wreaking havoc in Europe’s top economy and around the world, it will not only be Laschet whose every move is under close scrutiny. Two other men, CSU leader Markus Soeder and Health Minister Jens Spahn, could also be in the running to be the conservative “chancellor candidate”.
‘Savior’
Bavarian state premier Soeder, who has impressed with his tough line on the coronavirus pandemic, is currently streets ahead in polls of who Germans would like to see as their next chancellor. Once known as a staunch conservative and a vocal opponent of Merkel’s liberal migration policies, Soeder has reinvented himself in recent years as a man of the people with an environmentalist streak. After 1.75 million people in Bavaria signed a “save the bees” petition in 2019, Soeder announced that drastic changes in farming practices would simply be written into law rather than taking the additional step of a referendum-a move seen at that time as a bid to woo environmentally conscious voters.
Amid the raging coronavirus pandemic, the 54-yearold former journalist has repeatedly struck out alone to introduce tough anti-virus measures in the southern German state, an approach that has “given him the aura of a savior”, according to Der Spiegel weekly. Long a defender of traditional Christian values, Soeder is also known for being PR-savvy and chose the day before the CDU leadership vote to tweet a cute photo of his new puppy Molly. Germany has never before had a CSU chancellor, though the conservative alliance has not ruled out fielding a CSU candidate this time and has done so twice before-albeit unsuccessfully.