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Conservative’s missteps leave race for Merkel job open in Germany

Armin Laschet, the conservative candidate to succeed Angela Merkel as German chancellor, on Wednesday launched his campaign with polls showing falling support that could leave the outcome of September's vote wide open.

Published: 11 August 2021 14:19 CEST
Conservative's missteps leave race for Merkel job open in Germany
Armin Laschet (CDU), the conservative candidate bidding to succeed Merkel, kicks off his election campaign at a boxing training camp in Frankfurt on August 11th. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/AFP-Pool | Armando Babani

Laschet, 60, once a frontrunner in the race, is now on the back foot as he begins his delayed tour with a dialogue with youths attending a boxing training camp.

The visit in Frankfurt coincides with latest opinion polls showing that backing for Laschet’s CDU-CSU alliance has fallen another three points to 23 percent.

READ ALSO: German chancellor candidate Laschet loses favour with voters: poll

The drop — a precipitous 13 points since the beginning of the year — leaves the conservatives just three points clear of the Greens and four points ahead of their current coalition partner Social Democrats.

“Shocking polls,” exclaimed Bild daily as it pointed out that the results could mean any variety of coalition emerging following the September 26 elections. And that includes combinations leavin Merkel’s conservatives out of the ruling equation.

Laschet, who secured the conservatives’ nomination after a damaging battle with the leader of sister party CSU, Markus Söder, began his quest for the chancellery already under pressure from within his own alliance.

READ ALSO: Frontrunner to succeed Merkel admits plagiarism ‘mistakes’ in book

A whiff of discontent from Soeder’s camp and disunity among the ranks had threatened to derail Laschet’s bid for Germany’s top job.

But Laschet subsequently benefitted from a slump in support for the Greens’ Annalena Baerbock after she was ensnared in a series of scandals including plagiarism allegations.

Yet the tide dramatically turned against Laschet in mid-July, when deadly floods struck western Germany, washing away homes, businesses and critical infrastructure.

As state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia — one of the two hardest-hit regions, the conservative candidate was propelled to the frontline of the disaster response.

His visits to the flood-hit zones however have been marked by serious missteps that have left him sinking in the polls.

‘Serious enough?’

In the immediate aftermath of the disaster that claimed at least 190 lives, Laschet was caught on camera joking and laughing with local officials as German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier paid homage to victims.

READ ALSO: German chancellor candidate Laschet sparks anger with flood zone laughter

Another more recent visit ended with residents accusing him of failing to offer rapid and concrete aid. He was also widely mocked for wearing inappropriate dress shoes to the disaster zones.

Amid Laschet’s woes, the Social Democrats’ candidate Olaf Scholz, who is also Germany’s finance minister, has emerged as a dark horse in the race for the chancellery.


Social Democratic Party leader and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz has emerged as a ‘dark horse’ in the election campaign. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Carsten Koall

Previously largely written off because it was left seriously trailing by the ecologist Greens, the centre-left party is now eyeing a revival, with the latest polls showing it gaining three percentage points.

And Scholz is topping the popularity charts of potential chancellors, at 26 percent while Laschet is languishing at 12 percent.

“The battle is open,” said SPD general secretary Lars Klingbeil, saying that both Laschet and Greens’ leader Baerbock had made “serious mistakes”.

“People are asking themselves who is serious enough and sincere enough to lead this country. And we want to convince them on that point,” he said.

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GERMAN CITIZENSHIP

German conservatives vow to overturn dual citizenship if re-elected

Foreigners in Germany are waiting on tenterhooks for the introduction of the new dual nationality law on Thursday - but the centre-right CDU and CSU say they would overturn the reform if re-elected next year.

Published: 25 June 2024 12:06 CEST
German conservatives vow to overturn dual citizenship if re-elected

“The CDU and CSU will reverse this unsuccessful reform,” Alexander Throm (CDU), spokesperson on domestic policy for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, told DPA on Tuesday.

“Dual citizenship must remain the exception and be limited to countries that share our values.”

Throm also criticised the new citizenship law for reducing the amount of time foreigners need to live in the country before naturalising as Germans, describing the new residence requirements as “far too short”.

“After five or even three years, it is not yet possible to determine with certainty whether integration has been successful in the long term,” he stated.

“The recent caliphate demonstrations and the rampant Islamist extremism, often by people with German passports, must be a wake-up call for us all.”

READ ALSO: Which foreign residents are likely to become German after citizenship law change?

Despite vociferous opposition, the alliance between the Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party (CSU) was powerless to stop the traffic-light coalition’s citizenship reform passing in both the Bundestag and Bundesrat earlier this year. 

The reform, which permits the holding of multiple passports, lowers residence requirements and removes language hurdles for certain groups, is set to come into force on June 27th. 

But with the CDU and CSU emerging as clear winners in the recent EU parliamentary elections and regularly landing on 30 percent or above in the polls, it’s possible that the party could be on course to re-enter government next year. 

In this situation, the centre-right parties have pledged to try and undo what senior CDU politicians have described as a “dangerous” reform.

“It is not unusual for successive governments to reverse decisions made by the previous government,” Andrea Lindholz, the head of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group said in a recent response to a question. 

“We will maintain our position on this and will continue to strive for a corresponding change.”

READ ALSO: What are citizenship offices around Germany doing to prepare for the new law?

Whether the CDU and CSU can secure enough votes at both state and federal elections to change the law in the future remains to be seen.

The parties may also have to compromise on their plans with any future coalition partner, such as the Greens, Social Democrats (SPD) or Free Democrats (FDP), all of whom support liberal immigration laws and the holding of multiple nationalities. 

‘Citizenship devaluation law’

The CDU and CSU parties, which form a centre-right alliance nicknamed the Union, have long been opposed to dual nationality in Germany.

During their years of governing in a so-called grand coalition with the centre-right Social Democrats (SPD), the parties had regularly made reforms of citizenship one of their red lines, citing the danger of hostile nations influencing Germany from within. 

In a recent parliamentary speech back in January, Throm had slammed the bill as a “citizenship devaluation law” and accused the government of trying to generate a new electorate to win votes.

CDU politician Alexander Throm speaks in a debate in the German Bundestag

CDU politician Alexander Throm speaks in a debate in the German Bundestag. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Christoph Soeder

In comments aimed primarily at Germany’s large Turkish diaspora, the CDU politician claimed that people who had lived in Germany for decades but not taken German citizenship had already chosen their old country over Germany.

The majority of Turks in Germany are also supporters of the authoritarian president Recep Erdogan, he argued.

Responding to the claims, FDP migration expert Ann-Veruschka Jurisch said the opposition was fuelling resentments against migrants by claiming the government was “squandering German citizenship”.

In fact, she argued, the reform has tightened up requirements by ensuring that people who claim benefits and cannot support themselves are unable to become German citizens.

READ ALSO: What you need to know about Germany’s citizenship law reform

In addition, the B1 language requirements have only been softened in a few exceptional cases, for example to honour the lifetime achievements of the guest worker generation who had few opportunities when they arrived, Jurisch said. 

If foreigners have committed crimes, the authorities will be able to investigate whether these involved racist or anti-Semitic motives before citizenship is granted, she added. 

With reporting by DPA

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