CDU boss Armin Laschet wants to take a first step out of the polls for the Union at the party congress of the sister party CSU this Saturday. CSU boss Markus Söder promised the joint chancellor candidate of the CDU and CSU a warm and cordial welcome in Nuremberg. Previously, parts of the CSU had again expressed skepticism about the candidacy of the Rhinelander in view of the weak survey results for the Union.
A survey by the Civey Institute confirmed the skepticism: With CSU boss Söder as candidate for chancellor, the Union would be much better in favor of the voters than with Laschet and would come to 37 percent.
On Friday, Söder was confirmed in his office as party chairman for another two years by the delegates of the CSU party congress with 87.6 percent of the vote. He landed just above the result of 87.4 percent in his first election at the beginning of 2019, but fell short of the result when he was re-elected in October 2019 – at that time it was 91.3 percent.
Previously, Söder had given a speech, which was acknowledged with applause for minutes, in which he attacked SPD candidate Olaf Scholz, warned of a left slide in the federal election in a good two weeks and of anti-democratic tendencies in circles of the lateral thinker scene.
And Söder demonstratively backed Laschet, with whom he had once fought for the Union’s candidacy for chancellor. “We are 100 percent behind our common candidate for chancellor and want to see Armin Laschet in the chancellery,” said Söder on Friday. The numbers from the surveys for the CSU and for the Union are not sufficient. He called to the SPD and the Greens not to be too sure of victory. “We’ll catch you on the last few meters,” he said.