For the CDU politician, it is the third attempt to take over the party leadership.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin Ex-Union parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz wants to run for the CDU chairmanship. The German press agency learned this on Saturday from party circles. This is the third time that the economic expert has attempted the office of chairman after Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is now only managing director, announced her withdrawal from party chairmanship in 2018.
First, the “Bild” newspaper reported that the CDU district executive in Hochsauerland had been invited to nominate Merz as a candidate for chairman this Monday evening. On Friday, the foreign politician Norbert Röttgen and the executive head of the Chancellery, Helge Braun, announced their candidacies for the CDU chairmanship.
Union parliamentary group leader Ralph Brinkhaus, who was also considered a possible candidate to succeed the CDU chairman Armin Laschet, who had failed as candidate for chancellor in the Bundestag election, declined to run after a report by the “Neue Westfälische”.
During a meeting of his Gütersloh district association on Friday evening, Brinkhaus did not ask for a proposal from his home association. “Ralph Brinkhaus was involved in the meeting and after careful consideration he did not throw his hat into the ring,” said district association chief Raphael Tigges of the newspaper.
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Röttgen and Braun had called for the party’s content to be repositioned after its debacle in the federal election. They urged unity, also with the sister party CSU. They also announced that they would modernize the party headquarters. The managing health minister Jens Spahn had announced that he would not run again.
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