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Merkel’s CDU to hold rank-and-file vote for new leader

Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) will pick their next leader through an unprecedented rank-and-file vote after a dismal result in September's election, party chiefs said Tuesday.

Published: 2 November 2021 17:24 CET

Friedrich Merz makes a speech

Possible contender Friedrich Merz makes a speech in Münster in October. Photo: dpa | Bernd Thissen

The new leader will be chosen by a vote among 400,000 CDU members before being formally elected at a congress on January 21 and 22 in Hanover, outgoing party chief Armin Laschet and general secretary Paul Ziemiak told a press conference in Berlin.

Previous leaders have been elected by a much smaller number of delegates at a party congress.

Laschet said it was “a good way to get the CDU off to a new start” after the party and the Bavarian CSU scored their worst election result since World War II in September’s vote.

The Social Democrats (SPD), who emerged as the biggest party, are in talks with the Greens and the liberal FDP to form a ruling coalition and hope to have a new government in place by early December.

No candidates have yet put themselves forward for the CDU leadership, but Friedrich Merz and Norbert Roettgen – who both ran against Laschet when he was elected party leader in early 2021 – are among those expected to run.

Merz is a veteran right-winger and longtime arch-rival of Merkel, while Roettgen is a foreign policy expert who sits nearer the centre of the party.

Health Minister Jens Spahn, who ran unsuccessfully for the leadership in 2018, is also thought to be a possible contender.

Merkel stood down as CDU leader in 2018 after a poor election performance for the party in the state of Hesse, but vowed to stay on as chancellor until 2021’s general election.

After 16 years in power, she will continue as acting chancellor until a new government is formed.

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Germany's biggest companies campaign against far right parties ahead of the EU elections

The alliance of 30 companies includes blue-chip groups like BMW, BASF and Deutsche Bank, a well as family-owned businesses and start-ups.

“Exclusion, extremism and populism pose threats to Germany as a business location and to our prosperity,” said the alliance in a statement.

“In their first joint campaign, the companies are calling on their combined 1.7 million employees to take part in the upcoming European elections and engaging in numerous activities to highlight the importance of European unity for prosperity, growth and jobs,” it added.

The unusual action by the industrial giants came as latest opinion polls show the far-right AfD obtaining about 15 percent of the EU vote next month in Germany, tied in second place with the Greens after the conservative CDU-CSU alliance.

A series of recent scandals, including the arrest of a researcher working for an AfD MEP, have sent the party’s popularity sliding since the turn of the year, even though it remains just ahead of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats.

Already struggling with severe shortages in skilled workers, many German enterprises fear gains by the far right could further erode the attractiveness of Europe’s biggest economy to migrant labour.

READ ALSO: INTERVIEW – Why racism is prompting a skilled worker exodus from eastern Germany

The alliance estimates that fast-ageing Germany currently already has 1.73 million unfilled positions, while an additional 200,000 to 400,000 workers would be necessary annually in coming years.

bmw worker

, chief executive of the Dussmann Group, noted that 68,000 people from over 100 nations work in the family business.

“For many of them, their work with us, for example in cleaning buildings or geriatric care, is their entry into the primary labour market and therefore the key to successful integration. Hate and exclusion have no place here,” he said.

Siemens Energy chief executive Christian Bruch warned that “isolationism, extremism, and xenophobia are poison for German exports and jobs here in Germany – we must therefore not give space to the fearmongers and fall for their supposedly simple solutions”.

The alliance said it is planning a social media campaign to underline the call against extremism and urged other companies to join its initiative.

READ ALSO: A fight for the youth vote – Are German politicians social media savvy enough?

It added that the campaign will continue after the EU elections, with three eastern German states to vote for regional parliaments in September.

In all three — Brandenburg, Thuringia and Saxony — the far-right AfD party is leading surveys.

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