Rival candidates clash as fight to replace Merkel reveals party split
THE race to succeed Angela Merkel began in earnest yesterday as the main contenders opened their campaigns to become leader of her Christian Democrat party (CDU).
Armin Laschet, widely seen as the continuity candidate and standardbearer for the Merkellian centrists, faced off against Friedrich Merz, a multimillionaire businessman and longtime Merkel rival who wants to take the party back to its more conservative roots.
“Our country needs more confidence. We have to bring the party and the country back together, and that’s why I want to run,” Mr Laschet said at a press conference to announce his campaign in Berlin.
Mr Merz announced his candidacy two hours later, saying: “As of today, we have a choice between continuity and a new beginning,” .
Norbert Röttgen, a third candidate, announced he was standing last week but his chances are seen as slim.
Mr Merz landed some telling blows yesterday, rounding on Mrs Merkel’s controversial refugee policy. “If a government loses control over immigration to its own country, it shouldn’t be surprising that it loses people’s trust,” he said. But it was Mr Laschet who drew the first blood of the campaign when Jens Spahn, the popular health minister, gave him his public support.
The 39-year-old Mr Spahn was expected to stand himself as the face of a new generation, but chose instead to be Mr Laschet’s effective running mate.
The CDU is set to choose a new leader at a special conference on April 25, but many in the party fear even such a short campaign could expose deep divisions between its centrist and conservative wings.
Mr Spahn is a darling of the conservatives and outspoken critic of Mrs Merkel, and his decision will allow the centrist Mr Laschet to claim he alone can unite the party’s warring factions.
“Armin Laschet has shown he can bring conservatives, centrists and liberals together in one party,” Mr Spahn told a joint press conference in Berlin. “The CDU is facing the greatest crisis in our history. A crisis of trust and confidence. We now face the task of keeping everyone together,” Mr Laschet said.
The CDU is electing its second new leader in as many years after Annegret Kramp-karrenbauer, Mrs Merkel’s chosen heir, stood down following a series of disastrous election results.
Mrs Merkel remains determined to see out her current term as chancellor, which ends in September next year. But the new leader will lead the CDU into the general election that follows.
As regional prime minister of North Rhine-westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, Mr Laschet has the most government experience.
A prominent supporter of Mrs Merkel’s refugee policy, he will hope the support of Mr Spahn, who was one of its biggest critics, will counter conservative misgivings. Mr Laschet has pledged to nominate Mr Spahn as deputy leader if he wins. But the gamble risks opening the way for Mr Merz to unite the conservative votes.
Mrs Kramp-karrenbauer held talks with all the candidates last week amid rumours of a back-room deal, and it was leaked to the German press yesterday that she had offered Mr Merz a job in Mrs Merkel’s cabinet – presumably in return for standing aside for Mr Laschet.