Nobody had that on the screen!
CDU hammer on Tuesday morning: Foreign expert Norbert Röttgen (54) surprisingly announces his candidacy for the party chairmanship. He is the first CDU politician to officially apply for the successor of Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (57) – although he feels like he is number four.
Because in addition to Röttgen, three other top politicians from North Rhine-Westphalia have long been considered possible candidates for the party presidency – and thus also for a chancellor candidacy: Prime Minister Armin Laschet (59), ex-Union faction leader Friedrich Merz (64) and Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (39).
But – unlike Röttgen – they are still covering themselves and are not officially expressing their ambitions.
Wrongly? The fact is: Röttgen’s open approach seems to have been well received by people in Germany so far.
After the Röttgen-Rumms the poll hammer follows
This is shown by a lightning survey among BILD readers (currently around 150,000 participants): Because Norbert Röttgen is taking first place among the four (possible) applicants!
Remarkable: He combines more voices than Jens Spahn and Armin Laschet together.
▶ ︎ With currently 48 percent, Röttgen is just ahead of Friedrich Merz (42 percent), but all the more clearly ahead of Armin Laschet (six percent) and Jens Spahn (five percent).
Caution! The BILD Blitz survey is not representative, so it should only be understood as a mood barometer for BILD.de readers.
AND HOWEVER: The result is a bang! Until now, Friedrich Merz has always been far ahead of its competitors in similar surveys.
The latest development is likely to be particularly unpleasant for NRW Prime Minister Armin Laschet. And that also on his 59th birthday. For him, Norbert Röttgen’s candidacy is anything but a welcome surprise.
In addition, Röttgen and Laschet had competed against each other in the past: in 2010 in a primary election to the NRW party chair. Back then, the winner: Röttgen!
But it was a Pyrrhus victory: Röttgen was remembered in North Rhine-Westphalia especially with his crashing defeat in the state election in 2012 when he brought the CDU the historically worst result in an NRW state election – almost 13 percentage points behind that of Prime Minister Hannelore at the time Force-led SPD.
Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) responded, kicking him out of the federal cabinet because he refused to move to the country as the opposition leader.
Shortly thereafter, he also lost his post as CDU vice. Suddenly Röttgen was only a simple member of the Bundestag. But he got up again and took over the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee in 2014.
In this position he has been able to score in recent years, gaining reputation and respect.
At least with BILD readers, this seems to have left a lasting impression. The race for the CDU chairmanship will now be more exciting than expected. Also because the question arises whether with Röttgen’s candidacy the team solution that has repeatedly been brought into play in the last few days can still be implemented.
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