Düsseldorf (AP) – North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) has voted in favor of the nomination of the Union’s candidate for chancellor after several state elections in spring 2021. “In my estimation, this can happen in the spring,” said Laschet of the German press agency in Düsseldorf. “I think that clarity should be brought about after the state elections.” On March 14th there are state elections in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate, as well as local elections in Hesse. State elections in Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt follow in April and June.
Laschet is applying at an online party conference on January 16, alongside ex-Union parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz and foreign politician Norbert Röttgen for the CDU federal chairmanship. The future CDU boss is also considered a potential candidate for chancellor. Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) will not run again in the federal election on September 26th. In most of the surveys, CSU boss Markus Söder is ahead as a potential candidate for chancellor of the Union. So far, however, Söder has not officially announced any ambitions for the chancellorship.
In the fight for the CDU chairmanship, Laschet ruled out a change with his team partner Jens Spahn before the party conference. “Yes, the tandem is up,” said Laschet. The Prime Minister emphasized that he had a “very specific idea of how the CDU can continue to assume government responsibility in the future.” “It works best in a team, but with clear leadership.” Laschet appears at the federal party conference with Federal Health Minister Spahn as a possible deputy.
Laschet said he was confident of winning the election. Unlike his competitors Merz and Röttgen, he leads a government and has shown in NRW how to win elections. Politics does not only consist of “clever descriptions of the world and its problems,” replied Laschet when asked what he brings with him in contrast to the two competitors. “Politics is always concrete implementation.” He leads the CDU-FDP government in North Rhine-Westphalia with a majority of only one vote and knows the troubles of the level. “A” you should-paint “attitude doesn’t help.”
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