Armin Laschet, the leader of Germany’s most populous state, was elected Saturday to head Angela Merkel’s governing party, putting him in pole position to replace the German chancellor when she steps down later this year.
Armin Laschet, the leader of Germany’s most populous state, was elected Saturday to head Angela Merkel’s governing party, putting him in pole position to replace the German chancellor when she steps down later this year. Of the three candidates to head the Christian Democratic Union, Laschet was seen as the most continuity from Merkel, who is more popular with the German public than ever. During an online convention where 1,001 party delegates logged on to decide who would steer them, Laschet won 521 votes compared to 466 for Friedrich Merz, a longtime Merkel rival who would have represented a shift to the right. A third candidate, Norbert Röttgen, went out in the first round of voting. The Christian Democratic Union had been jettisoning voters to the far right, but reversed its losses over the past year, gaining around 10 percentage points in the polls.
