CDU leader Laschet ready to step down

Laschet led his Conservative Party and union with CSU in the September elections. But the result was disastrous for the union, which became the second largest, but the result was the worst so far.

On Thursday evening, Laschet said he wants to call a party meeting where future leadership will be discussed.

Laschet said he would suggest a date for a caucus. Therefore, he chose not to resign immediately, which was speculated by the German media.

previously challenged

However, Laschet tells party comrades that the party needs a fresh start after losing the election, when CDU/CSU took 24.1 percent, down 8.8 percentage points from the 2017 election.

Laschet, of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, had come under fire internally even before the election. He was also challenged as a candidate for Chancellor of the Confederation by Markus Söder, leader of the Bavarian sister party CSU.

Problems with the party leadership are also a failure of current Chancellor Angela Merkel, who failed to help replace the CDU leadership when she now resigns.

Negotiations are underway

Earlier, the CDU elected Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer as party leader after a long battle for the position. She was appointed in December 2018, but announced her desire to resign in February 2020.

Armin Laschet was elected party leader on January 16 this year.

Laschet’s letter comes at the same time as government negotiations are taking place, but without the CDU/CSU entirely. On Wednesday, the Green and Liberal FDP announced that it was beginning discussions with the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the party’s chancellor candidate, current Finance Minister Olaf Scholz.

The Social Democrats got 25.7% of the vote, the Greens got 14.8% and the Free Democratic Party got 11.5%.