German governor gets Merkel endorsement as next chancellor
BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed full support Sunday for Armin Laschet, the center-right Union bloc’s candidate who is hoping to succeed her as chancellor in this month’s German national election.
Merkel and Laschet on Sunday toured the town of Hagen and another region in North Rhine-Westphalia state that were badly damaged by flooding in July. Laschet is the governor of North Rhine-Westphalia, a western state that is the country’s most populous.
“Armin Laschet leads this biggest state of Germany very successfully,” Merkel told reporters in Hagen. “Somebody who can lead such a state can also lead Germany as chancellor.”
Germany’s parliamentary election is set for Sept. 26. Merkel, who led the Union bloc to four election victories, said in 2018 that she would not seek another term. She has presided over the European Union’s biggest economy since 2005.
Laschet, who also leads the Christian Democratic Union party, is lagging behind the center-left Social Democrats in the polls. He has received particularly unfavorable reviews after a series of slips on the campaign trail in recent months.
The Social Democrats’ success in the polls is helped by the relative popularity of their candidate, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, who is also vice chancellor in Merkel’s coalition government.
At a press conference with Laschet, Merkel said in the next three weeks “a full commitment is needed on all levels, both from the government and the campaigners.”
“There are a lot of things we need to do at the same time: there’s the coronavirus, the floods and then there is also the election,” Merkel said, adding that “I think that together we will do it well — and Armin Laschet knows he has my support.”
During the tour of areas badly damaged by the flooding, Merkel acknowledged that despite Germany’s commitment to rebuilding, it will take a long time until the regions are put back together.
“The reconstruction will take a long time,” Merkel told reporters Sunday in flood-hit Hagen.
Merkel visited a bridge in Hagen that was destroyed but has been nearly rebuilt and talked to firefighters in the Sauerland region who had lost two colleagues during rescue efforts in July, the German news agency dpa reported.
More than 180 people died in Germany and hundreds more were injured in the July 14-15 floods, which also claimed lives in neighboring Belgium. Heavy rainfall turned small streams into raging torrents, sweeping away houses, bridges and cars.
The German government quickly put into place a roughly $475 million package of immediate aid for flood victims. Last month, it agreed to provide $35.6 billion in longer-term aid to help rebuild the affected regions.
Laschet vowed that his government will take care of the places and people most affected by the floods’ damage “so that they can live in their own homes again.” He promised to help reconstruct kindergartens and schools and get factories ready so that workers can go back to work.