Laschet successor: Hessian CDU is looking for a third candidate

Laschet succession
Hessian CDU is looking for a third candidate

From Franca Lehfeldt

There is movement in the race for the CDU chairmanship: The State Association of Hesse is apparently dissatisfied with the candidates currently being discussed and is in the process of looking for an alternative.

Even after the deadline for candidacies set by the outgoing CDU leader Armin Laschet has passed, no applicant has officially registered for the party chairmanship. Talks are still going on behind the scenes.

It could come down to three applicants: In addition to Friedrich Merz and Norbert Röttgen, a third candidacy is being sounded out in the CDU according to information from ntv and RTL. The focus is on the State Association of Hesse, with the Chancellery playing a key role. Chancellery Minister Helge Braun comes from Hesse.

At the request of the Hessian prime minister and deputy CDU chairman Volker Bouffier, a meeting of the state executive board was brought forward from November 19 to November 12, i.e. to the coming Friday. There is no agenda, it is said from circles of the state CDU, the only point is the topic of “Federal Presidency”. From party circles it is also said that Braun could imagine a candidacy. Whether he actually competes depends on the feedback he gets from other regional associations.

Meanwhile, a paper with the title “No Time to Cry” is circulating in the CDU, which demands that the party “reorganize itself programmatically and strategically within the next 2-3 years”. Names are not mentioned in it, but the paper is considered a rejection of the previously covert competition of big names such as Merz and Röttgen. It demands not to focus on people, but on content. The connection of content with people is only credible if these people can be proven to be credible.

On November 2, Laschet said he was trying “to reach a consensual settlement”. At a weekend appearance in front of the Federal Association of Lesbians and Gays in the Union, Merz said about the candidacy as CDU chairman: “I tend to do that.”

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