He acknowledges that the party faces “a long road” to regain power
The third time lucky. After two failed candidacies in the last three years, Friedrich Merz was elected today in Berlin as the new president of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) with almost 95% of the votes of the delegates attending the extraordinary virtual congress of the German conservative party. In December it had obtained the support of 62.1% of the bases in the first consultation in the history of the CDU to its affiliates to decide the leadership of the formation. Merz, 66 years old, succeeds Armin Laschet, the failed conservative candidate for the general elections last September, who resigned after his electoral defeat and the victory of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). At the end of the Angela Merkel era and her 16 years in power, the Christian Democrats find themselves in opposition again. The new president of the CDU received the support of 915 of the 983 delegates attending the congress and of whom 16 abstained. After Annegret Karrenbauer, who took over from Merkel in 2018, and Armin Laschet, Friedrich Merz is the third German conservative leader in three years.
In a speech before the delegates before the vote, the new president of the Christian Democrats called for unity and the constitution of a strong opposition to the current coalition government of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals. “A strong signal of a new beginning and renewal of the CDU will come out of this congress,” said Merz, who stressed that “we have not lost confidence in ourselves” and that, in the face of the tripartite, “Germany must have a Union that continues to serving the country, offer answers to the urgent questions of our time” and that, from the opposition, will claim the right to re-form a government for tomorrow. “Let’s not fool ourselves, until then there will be a long way to go,” said the new leader of the German conservatives, who warned his co-religionists that “how long that road takes does not depend only on it, but also on us.”
“If we clash, if we split up and start running in all directions, if we don’t offer a clear picture, if we don’t keep up with the times in addressing the issues, then it may take a long time. And even then it is not certain that we will achieve it, ”said Merz, who urged his colleagues to put their feet on the ground as soon as possible. In his speech, Merz criticized the federal chancellor, the Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, whom he accused of trying to introduce the compulsory vaccine for the elderly, while refusing to present a bill to carry it out drawn up by the three government parties. . He also blamed Merkel’s successor in power for his “ambiguity” in the face of the crisis over the situation on the Ukrainian border and not having bothered to travel to Washington or Moscow until now. Public opinion does not even know if it is in dialogue with the leaders of the United States and Russia, reproached the new president of the CDU.
Merz has managed to become leader of the German conservatives on the third try. Last year he lost the election for the presidency of the CDU against Armin Laschet and in 2018 in the duel with Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. On this occasion he has had no rivals after the bases rejected two other candidates in December. Foreign policy expert Norbert Röttgen and former Federal Chancellor Minister Helge Braun were no match for him. Away from active politics for almost fifteen years after losing the leadership of the Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag in favor of Angela Merkel in 2000, Merz returned to national politics at the time the former chancellor announced that she would not stand for election. re-election in the 2021 elections and resigned from the party presidency. In his last speech as president of the CDU before handing over to Merz, Laschet assured that the new president of the party is “precisely the right person” for the position.
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