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Germany's Ruling Christian Democrats Pick Merkel Loyalist as New Leader

Jamie Dettmer

   Germany's ruling Christian Democrats (CDU) Saturday chose Armin
   Laschet, premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous
   state, as their new leader. The pick suggests the party favors
   continuing with German Chancellor Angela Merkel's middle-of-the-road
   policies when she steps down in September after 16 years in office.

   Laschet's win puts him in position to succeed Merkel when the CDU and
   its sister party, the Christian Social Union, decide in March who
   should become the center-right bloc's candidate for chancellor in
   national elections.

   The CDU has led Germany's federal government for 52 of the past 72
   years.

   Laschet, 59, now replaces as chair of the party Annegret
   Kramp-Karrenbauer, the defense secretary whom Merkel had been grooming
   as her successor. Kramp-Karrenbauer largely failed to assert her
   authority over the party and announced her resignation in February
   after blaming Merkel for not being supportive enough.

   A longtime Merkel loyalist -- some see Laschet as the male version of
   her -- he said during the campaign that a change of direction for the
   party would "send exactly the wrong signal," as he touted himself as
   the continuity candidate in a contest that saw him pitched against
   corporate lawyer Friedrich Merz, a far more conservative figure and
   Merkel critic, and Norbert Röttgen, chairman of the Bundestag's
   foreign affairs panel.

   Röttgen, also a centrist, was eliminated in the first round of voting.
   The party's 1,000 delegates, who voted in a virtual conference, then
   gave Laschet his win in a runoff that saw him beat Merz by 55 votes.

   'Stick together'

   "I want to do everything so that we can stick together through this
   year," he told his CDU colleagues after his win. " '¦ And then make
   sure that the next chancellor in the federal elections will be from the
   [CDU/CSU] union."

   For months, Laschet, who's pro-immigrant, was Merkel's preferred
   candidate. He defended her during the 2015 refugee crisis. But their
   relations turned frosty earlier this year when he pressed for an early
   relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions, forcing him to scramble to repair
   the political damage he sustained inside and outside the CDU.

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