In their struggle for power for the German Confederation’s candidacy for chancellor, competitors Armin Laschet and Marcus Söder sought the support of the Christian Democratic Union / Christian Social Union deputies Tuesday afternoon.

4:50 PM, April 13, 2021

Söder went on the offensive and addressed the poor numbers in the Etihad polls with the goal of facing his opponent. The only question is: “Do we want to win?” Soder said, according to the participants. Chancellor Angela Merkel has previously emphasized her neutrality in wrestling.

The CDU president owed nothing to Soder and tore up his “Climate Alliance” plan. Lachette said, according to participants, the union should not imitate the Greens. CDU and CSU should not lose their core. The CDU Presidency and the Federal Executive Committee also represent the party, not “splinter groups”.Laschet said, referring to Soder’s Al Qaeda campaign.

Warnings from both sides

In contrast, the Bavarian prime minister said that union representatives should ultimately be responsible for running for the position of chancellor. He said that there can be no election campaign without representatives. Söder cautioned that the CDU and the Christian Social Union should not become junior partners in a new government.

With their respective party leaders clearly standing behind them, Lachette and Suder appeared on Tuesday afternoon at the regular meeting of 250 Parliamentary Union members. The Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union form a parliamentary bloc in the Bundestag. Group leader Ralph Brinkhouse and Christian Social Union regional group leader Alexander Dobrendt described the emergence of potential candidates for the position of chancellor as a “natural process”. Dobrendt said it was about finding a “collective solution”.

Söder insists that the support of North Rhine Chief Minister-Westphalian Laschet among the CDU MPs was not as unanimous as it was on Monday in the CDU committees. The Bavarian Prime Minister wants to turn the picture in his favor.

Soder had said on the “Bild Life” program, on Monday evening, that MPs are concerned about “winning or losing the constituency.” If you look at the current survey data, you can see that previously safe black constituencies are now “green in the south, red in the west, and blue in the east.”

Meanwhile, Lachette warned the CDU / CSU federation not to allow themselves to split. “Good and fair cooperation is the key now. According to the participants, Laschet received great support for his candidacy there,” he said after information from the German news agency (dpa) Monday evening at a meeting of the influential state group of CDU members from North Rhine-Westphalia. She said that many speakers explicitly welcomed the unanimous vote by the CDU’s upper bodies of Lachette.

Merkel will stay out

Laschet and Suder lead two federal states in Germany by population as prime minister. CSU is the Bavarian sister party of the CDU. Chancellor Angela Merkel will no longer run in the fall federal election. When asked on Tuesday, she assured that she would not interfere with the decision on the candidate for the chancellor’s position. “I wanted, I want, and I’ll stay out of it,” says the Christian Democratic Union politician.

When she was first elected president of the Christian Democratic Union in 2002, Merkel let Edmund Stoiber, Bavaria’s prime minister and president of the Christian Social Union, go first. This narrowly lost to Gerhard Schroeder, the social democratic incumbent. Three years later, Merkel won her first of four election victories as the union’s candidate for the chancellor.

According to information from Dobrendt, the leader of the CDU regional group, the candidate for the union advisor in the CDU / Christian Social Union parliamentary group was not scheduled to vote. The decision must be made within “a few days” Duprendt says. Presenting both candidates into the parliamentary group is part of the process – just like the subsequent discussion in a bipartisan group proposed by CSU Chair Söder.

Duprendt rejected SPD’s criticisms of the selection process. The coalition was reportedly paralyzed for “months” due to the membership decision on the leadership of the Social Democratic Party. Leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) parliamentary group, Rolf Mutzenich, followed suit, describing the union as “unfit for government” due to the struggle to run for the position of chancellor. The union cares more about its well-being than it is about fighting the epidemic, he criticized Muzinic on Tuesday.