CDU committees confirm Merz as German candidate for chancellor
Published: Monday, Sep 23rd 2024, 12:40
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The leadership committees of the German Christian Democrats have unanimously approved party leader Friedrich Merz's candidacy for chancellor.
According to participants, both the Presidium and the Federal Executive Committee applauded Merz for several minutes afterwards. Earlier, the executive committee of the Bavarian sister party CSU had also unanimously backed the CDU chairman's candidacy for chancellor.
Merz and CSU leader Markus Söder announced last week that they had reached an agreement on the long-discussed K issue. Söder let Merz go first and promised him his full backing in the upcoming parliamentary election campaign. This decision now had to be approved by the leadership committees of both parties.
The aim of both Union parties is to replace the "traffic light" coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP in the Bundestag elections on September 28 next year. In opinion polls, the CDU/CSU is currently far ahead of all other parties with figures between 32 and 35.5 percent. The "traffic light" coalition is only polling between 29 and 30 percent, with the FDP at 4 percent in the polls and even fearing for its re-entry into the Bundestag.
The 68-year-old Merz has been CDU leader since the beginning of 2022. He was long regarded as a conservative opponent of Chancellor Angela Merkel (2005-2021). In the early 2000s, he was already leader of the opposition in the Bundestag, but had to cede the post to then CDU leader Merkel after the 2002 election.
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