He really wants to know now!
Chancellery Minister Helge Braun (49) wants to be CDU boss!
He announced his candidacy for the chair in the afternoon. He will present the reasons for his application to the state party in Hesse on Friday at a state board meeting, said a spokesman for the Hesse CDU parliamentary group.
He is officially nominated by his home district association in Giessen.
BILD had already learned on Tuesday that he was considering a candidacy.
In the camp of competitor Friedrich Merz (65, CDU) that caused nothing but malice!
“The last thing the CDU needs now is an anesthetist,” said a CDU MP from the Merz camp during a preliminary meeting for the parliamentary group meeting on Wednesday afternoon, as BILD learned.
A nasty double allusion. Braun has a calm, uninspiring manner – but the title has a real background: Before his political career, he worked as an anesthetist at the University Hospital Giessen.
Spahn withdraws
The incumbent Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (41) withdrew his candidacy on Wednesday.
As BILD learned from several participants, Spahn declared in a broken voice that he would not apply for the office of CDU chief. Instead, he wants to concentrate fully on his office as health minister in the remaining weeks and devote his full attention to the fight against corona. Then there was thunderous applause.
Furthermore, Spahn stated that it would not be compatible with a fresh start for the CDU if members of the old federal government were to take over the party leadership.
An argument that Helge Braun obviously does not accept.
In addition to Braun, Friedrich Merz and Norbert Röttgen are also presumably running for the CDU’s chief position. Foreign policy expert Röttgen wants to comment on a possible candidacy on Friday.
But the clear favorite for the job is: Friedrich Merz (65). It is the most popular among grassroots polls.
Until November 17th, associations and district associations of the CDU can submit written candidate proposals to the Berlin party headquarters in the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus. Then the 400,000 or so members will decide who will be the new CDU leader. According to the schedule, the CDU federal executive board assumes up to two ballots, but perhaps one of the candidates will get more than 50 percent of the votes in the first ballot. The result will be announced on December 17th.