At 66, this assumed curator was widely elected Friday, at the head of the party of the German Chancellor who is in the middle of the existential crisis after his defeat in the legislative elections in September.
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The “demerkelization” of the Christian-Democratic Union (CDU) is running. Nine days after the departure of Angela Merkel de la Chancellery, his rival still, Friedrich Merz, was elected, on Friday, December 17, at the head of the party she chaired from 2000 to 2018. aged 66, this Assumed conservative inherits from a CDU in the oven crisis after its debacle in the legislative elections of 26 September (24.1%, the worst score of its history).
For Friedrich Merz, who will be officially invested in a Congress scheduled on January 21 and 22, 2022, this victory is first of all that of perseverance. In December 2018, he had already tried to be elected at the head of the party after Angela Merkel had decided to leave the presidency. In vain: It is Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the designated Dauphine of the former Chancellor, who had taken it. In January 2021, after the latter in turn announced his withdrawal, he had been candidate again. Without more success: this time, it’s Armin Leschet, another “Merkelian” pure juice, which was elected.
After these two failures, Friedrich Merz could have drawn a definitive line on his ambitions. But Armin Laschet’s decision to leave the CUD presidency after the legislative conforms for him to retry his luck. The third time will have been the right one. With 62.1% of the votes, he widened it, Friday, against his two opponents, former President of the Bundestag Foreign Affairs Committee, Norbert Röttgen (25.8%), and the ex- Head of the Federal Chancellery, Helge Braun (12.1%).
Unquestionable legitimacy
As much as this very clear result obtained from the first round is the way Friedrich Merz has been elected that gives it indisputable legitimacy. Contrary to what was the case until then, they are not the 1,001 delegates of the CDU (executives, elected officials and representatives of the federations) but all of its 400,000 members who were called upon to choose the President of the Party. However, for this unprecedented exercise, the participation was strong: 66%. As a comparison, when the Social Democratic Party (SPD) consulted its 425,000 members to elect its new management, in November 2019, the rate of participation was 54%.
With Olaf Scholz (SPD) with Chancellery and Friedrich Merz as Presidency of the CDU, “Merkelism” is not where you could wait for it. Although Social Democrat, the new leader of the government is indeed much closer to the ex-chancellor than the new strong man of the party that she presided over for eighteen years. In this, Friedrich Merz’s victory is not just that of perseverance: it also has a serious taste of revenge.
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