Armin Laschet has been elected the new leader of the German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Germany.
Laschet emerged victorious at a virtual conference held over the weekend. He is currently the minister-president (effectively premier) of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous of Germany’s sixteen states.
Laschet won on the second round of voting. In the first round of voting he obtained 38.4% of the vote against 38.9% won by Friedrich Merz and 22.7% won by Norbert Röttgen, who was eliminated. In the second round most of Röttgen’s supporters voted for Laschet, giving him 52.8% of the vote.
Laschet becomes leader at a crucial time for the party as Germany faces elections in September, which won’t feature long-serving Chancellor Angela Merkel as a candidate for the first time since 2005. Laschet is seen as a key supporter of Merkel and his election will be seen as a vote for continuity.
Laschet is not guaranteed to be the party’s candidate for Chancellor in the upcoming general election. Health minister Jens Spahn, who was also elected as one of Laschet’s deputies, is seen as a possibility as is Markus Söder, the leader of the CDU’s Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union. The two parties are legally separate but generally act as one entity in the German Bundestag.
The CDU is far ahead of other parties in polling ahead of the election, but will fall short of a majority, and current trends indicate the CDU would have to govern in a coalition, a common feature of German politics.