In the final sprint for the Union’s candidacy for chancellor, CDU chairman Friedrich Merz has united important parts of his party behind him. North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst announced on Monday that he is currently not available to run for chancellor. At the same time, he promised Merz his support.
Wüst heads the CDU’s regional association with the largest number of members. With this association, Merz now has an important advocate behind him. Leading CDU politicians, meanwhile, called for unity within the Union.
It is still unclear when the K question will be decided. Merz and Söder have agreed to clarify the K question in late summer, after the elections in three eastern German states. Next Sunday is the state election in Brandenburg – and the beginning of autumn according to the calendar.
Merz keeps a low profile – Söder advertises aggressively
The CDU leader usually has first access to the CDU and CSU’s candidacy for chancellor. Although there is some evidence that Merz wants to do it, he is not revealing his cards.
Söder is less reserved in this regard, as he demonstrated at the Gillamoos folk festival the day after the state elections in Saxony and Thuringia. At the time, the Bavarian head of government announced his ambitions quite openly: “For me, being prime minister is the best job. But I would not shirk responsibility for our country.”
Calls for unity
After Wüst’s rejection, leading CDU representatives called for unity. “Election victories, and I expressly agree with Hendrik Wüst on this, can only be achieved with a high degree of unity,” said the Union’s parliamentary manager in the Bundestag, Thorsten Frei (CDU), to the “Rheinische Post”. CDU parliamentary group vice-chair Jens Spahn told the newspaper: “Hendrik Wüst’s decision is an important cornerstone for the Union’s unity and thus for the election victory in 2025.”
These calls should also be a message to Bavaria. “The lesson from 2021 is that there is a basic prerequisite for joint electoral success: the unity of the CDU and the Union as a whole,” said Wüst.
In the 2021 federal election campaign, Söder had a tough struggle with the then CDU leader Armin Laschet for the candidacy for chancellor, in which he lost but did not rest afterward; in the end, the Union lost the federal election. Olaf Scholz (SPD) ultimately became chancellor.
Lower Saxony CDU parliamentary group leader Sebastian Lechner now declared: “2021 must not be repeated, this must be clear to everyone involved. The Union must go into the upcoming election campaign with united ranks.”
Dennis Radtke, chairman of the CDU’s workers’ wing, told the “Tagesspiegel” that the CDU was clearly positioned. “Hopefully Markus Söder will follow suit soon so that we can focus on the content.”
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