The previous Prime Minister of Saarland, Tobias Hans, has announced his retirement from the position of CDU state party leader. At a party conference at the end of May, a decision should be made about the personnel reorganization, he said on Monday evening after a meeting of the CDU state executive board in Saarbrücken. The previous state parliament president Stephan Toscani has declared his willingness to run for the office of party chairman, said Hans.
The CDU suffered massive losses in the Saarland state elections and achieved a result “that fell far short of our expectations,” said Hans on Monday at a joint press conference with the federal party chairman Friedrich Merz. That’s why he wants to take responsibility for the result.
Of course, the election day was a bitter day, especially for the CDU Saar after the party had been in government for more than 20 years. But it was also a bitter day for Hans personally. Hans also explains the poor performance of the CDU in Saarland by saying that the election campaign was the first after the exhausting campaign of the federal election. The first task was to do and motivate the party to rebuild. That probably happened too late. The campaign was started too late and the party “simply couldn’t get through the issues that would have been important, in addition to the crisis management they are currently in”.
He had already indicated on Sunday that Hans wanted to draw conclusions from the disastrous result for his party. “It was an honor for me to have served this country as prime minister and an honor to have served you as party leader,” said Hans on Sunday evening. “I thank you for all your support.”
The election result, said Hans on Sunday, was linked to his person as the top candidate. “I know that when you see numbers like that, you want to leave. Then you really want to run away, stick your head in the sand, go to bed – but that, dear friends, is not our CDU Saar.” said Hans. His party fights even when it has lost. He is sure that good solutions will be found together so that we can look ahead again. The Saarland needs a strong CDU, “regardless of the role”.