According to the outgoing CDU leader Armin Laschet, former Chancellor Angela Merkel does not want to become honorary chairman of the party.
Berlin – The former head of government had come to the conclusion that such an office was no longer appropriate, Laschet said on Friday in the RTL/ntv program “Frühstart”. “It’s a tradition from the past that doesn’t exist at the federal level now.”
The last honorary chairman was Helmut Kohl, “who then resigned from the honorary chairmanship,” said Laschet. Kohl gave up his honorary chairmanship in early 2000 after the then party leadership around CDU leader Wolfgang Schäuble and Secretary General Merkel had distanced themselves from him against the background of the CDU donation scandal.
According to a report by “Spiegel” on Friday, Merkel will not attend a dinner after the planned election of Friedrich Merz as the new CDU leader at a party conference on Saturday. Merkel, like former party leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, canceled, the magazine reported. According to information from Union circles, Merz had invited all living former CDU chairmen. Laschet and Wolfgang Schäuble would have agreed.
According to “Spiegel”, the former chancellor’s office said there were “time reasons” for her rejection, while at Kramp-Karrenbauer it was private matters. The dinner now takes place without the two politicians.
With the invitation, Merz also wanted to set a sign of reconciliation with Merkel, the “Spiegel” reported. The relationship between the two has been broken for years. After the Union’s defeat in the 2002 general election, Merkel pushed Merz out of the office of parliamentary group leader. In 2009, Merz withdrew from politics for several years and worked in business.
mt/cha
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