Bavarian leader announces candidacy for chancellor
THE Bavarian premier has thrown down the gauntlet to the centre-right union’s contender by confirming that he is willing to run as the conservative candidate for German chancellor in September’s election.
Markus Söder said at a press conference held with his rival, Armin Laschet, in Berlin yesterday that they had held a discussion on who should be the candidate and “decided we are both suitable and willing”.
As leader of the smaller Bavarian CSU party, Mr Söder has acted against the convention that the larger CDU’S chairman should run as the joint parties’ conservative candidate.
But, spurred on by strong polling fig- ures, the ambitious Mr Söder said that he would run “if I have the backing of the CDU”.
Mr Laschet, who became CDU leader in January but has already suffered setbacks in local elections, said: “Markus and myself had a long conversation and we both said we were prepared to run.”
He added that they wanted to come to a decision “very quickly” after consulting with their party steering committees early this week.
While both men stressed their good professional relationship and the need for close cooperation whatever the out- come, Mr Söder’s announcement is a clear setback to the CDU leader.
Only on two occasions in post-war history has a member of the CSU run as the parties’ joint candidate. On both occasions, in 1980 and 2002, CDU leaders stood aside in campaigns in which they were outsiders to popular social democrat-led governments.
This time the CDU/CSU are ahead in polling, although their popularity has slumped recently after a slow start to the vaccine programme and corruption affairs involving PPI purchases.
Mr Laschet, state leader in North Rhine-westphalia, has seen his popularity drop as he has zigzagged between criticising and advocating lockdowns.
A recent poll by the Civey institute found that three quarters of Germans did not believe he would make a suitable candidate for chancellor.