Centrist Laschet picked to lead Merkel's divided CDU party

[January 16, 2021]  By Thomas Escritt and Caroline Copley

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's Christian Democrats elected Armin Laschet as chairman on Saturday, aiming to unify their divided party behind a centrist who they hope can succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor when she steps down after federal elections in September.

Laschet, premier of Germany's most populous state and the self-styled Merkel continuity candidate, won a runoff ballot of party delegates against arch-conservative Friedrich Merz.

Merkel, Europe's predominant politician and a consistent winner with German voters since taking office in 2005, has said she will not run for chancellor again, and since she stepped down as CDU leader in Dec. 2018, the party has struggled to find a suitable successor.

North Rhine-Westphalia premier Laschet, who beat Merz by 521 votes to 466, said he would do everything he could to ensure the CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), could "stick together through this year."

They could then work towards making sure that "the next chancellor in the federal elections will be from the (CDU/CSU) union," he said in his victory speech.

Saturday's digital election will be confirmed by a postal vote with legally binding results expected on Jan. 22.

THE 'TOOLS' FOR THE TOP JOB?

Merkel said last year that Laschet, 59, had "the tools" to run for chancellor, the closest she has come to endorsing anyone.

In his candidacy speech, Laschet said the next leader's task would be to earn trust for both himself and for the party and emphasised his ability to integrate all of its wings.

"I keep hearing that you also have to be able to polarise. I say: no, you don't have to," he told an empty conventional hall, from which the congress was livestreamed to delegates due to the pandemic.

"Woulda, coulda, shoulda' is not politics. You have to master the tools of centrist politics, the ability to unite."

But after his narrow run-off victory, Laschet must move swiftly to unite the party or risk eroding its support and leaving its in a weaker position to negotiate a coalition should it - as currently predicted - come first in September's elections.

By tradition, the CDU chairman is usually - though not always - the chancellor candidate for the CDU and CSU, and the conservative bloc is on course to win September's federal ballot.

The new elected Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party leader Armin Laschet speaks after being elected at the party's 33rd congress, held online because of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Berlin, Germany, January 16, 2021. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke

However, polls show Markus Soeder, the CSU leader, is the conservative most favoured by voters. Some CDU lawmakers want dynamic Health Minister Jens Spahn to run for chancellor, though he backed Laschet for the party leadership.

Soeder was one of the first to congratulate Laschet and said he was looking forward to working with him. "Together we will continue the Union's success story," he wrote on Twitter.

Soeder wants to give the new CDU leader time to win over voters and, with his help, unite the party - or else unravel.

He has called for the Union to decide on its chancellor candidate only after state elections in mid-March, leaving open the possibility he could run if Laschet stumbles.

Finance Minister Olaf Scholz from the Social Democrats (SPD), junior partner in Merkel’s ruling coalition, wished Laschet luck for "the big task."

"This year will be a challenge for all of us," Scholz, who is the SPD candidate for chancellor, said on Twitter.

Opinion polls give Merkel's conservative bloc around 36% of votes, followed by the Greens on around 20% and the Social Democrats on 16%.

CDU sources say Laschet, a centrist, would be well suited to negotiating a possible coalition government with the Greens.

Green Party leaders Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck said Laschet must redefine the CDU after Merkel as well as set the course to modernise the economy in an environmentally sustainable way.

Merz, who narrowly lost a 2018 bid for the CDU leadership, had said in his leadership speech that he wanted to bring the political debate back to the centre.

Merkel was succeeded in 2018 as party leader by her protegee Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who struggled in the role and said last year she would step down.

(Reporting by Caroline Copley and Thomas Escritt; editing by John Stonestreet)

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