Friedrich Merz becomes the new chairman of the CDU. In a member survey, the 66-year-old member of the Bundestag won 62.1 percent of the vote, as the party announced. The vote of the members still has to be formally confirmed by the party congress in January.
Merz’s competitor Helge Braun received 12.1 percent of the vote, and Norbert Röttgen 25.8 percent of the vote. The future party chairman promised “good cooperation with really everyone” and wanted to involve all parts of the party. The question of whether he also wants to take over the chairmanship of the Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag is “currently not on the agenda,” said Merz; he does not concern himself with that. His election is also not a preliminary decision on the candidate for chancellor in the next federal election.
Merz has now succeeded in the third attempt to become party leader. He was defeated by Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer in 2018 and by Armin Laschet in early 2021. Between 2000 and 2002 Merz was chairman of the Bundestag faction of the Union until the then party leader Angela Merkel ousted him from this post. In 2009 he left politics and worked as a lawyer and chairman of the supervisory board of the investor Blackrock, since September he has been back in the Bundestag. Before the vote, the 66-year-old lawyer was considered the darling of the conservatives and the economic wing of the CDU.
“Almost a quarter of a million took part in the #member survey, almost two thirds of all @CDU members. Thank you for this strong participation!” the CDU tweeted on Thursday. According to information from the CDU, 248,360 people took part in the survey, around two thirds of all party book owners. The CDU wrote on Twitter that a total of 132,617 members had cast an online vote (53.4 percent), and 115,743 members had voted by letter (46.6 percent).
It is the first time in the history of the CDU that the members can make a preliminary decision on the chairmanship. For the successor of party leader Armin Laschet, ex-Union faction leader Merz, the foreign politician Röttgen and the previous head of the Chancellery Braun had applied. Laschet was only elected CDU chief at the beginning of 2021. After the defeat in the federal election, for which he ran as the top candidate, the party now wants to reposition itself in the opposition.
From a purely formal point of view, the vote of the members is non-binding. According to the statutes of the CDU, the chairman is determined by a party congress. This takes place on 21./22. January in digital form. However, it is certain that the 1001 delegates will stick to the vote of the members. Merz, Röttgen and Braun have already promised to accept this, so that in all probability only one candidate will stand at the party congress.
CSU boss Markus Söder congratulated Merz. “Together and as one, we want to lead the #Union to new strength,” wrote the Bavarian Prime Minister on Friday on the short message service Twitter. The CSU and he personally looked forward to working together.