Germany: Conservatives parties agree on their candidate for chancellor elections in 2025
The leaders of Germany’s two conservative parties (the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union) agreed on Tuesday to nominate liberal Friedrich Merz for the position of chancellor in the 2025 elections, to confront the ruling coalition led by Olaf Scholz.
According to Bild newspaper, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union party (CDU), Friedrich Merz, will lead the right-wing bloc in the Bundestag elections, noting that the announcement of the new candidate will take place after the announcement of the results of the local elections in Brandenburg on September 22.
The CDU and CSU presidencies are expected to hold a joint meeting on September 23, where they will officially announce the candidate for chancellor.
Markus Söder, head of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), a sister party to the CDU, will step down.
This paves the way for Merz, (68), a liberal economist who has led the CDU to the right since becoming party leader in 2022, after Angela Merkel’s 16-year reign as chancellor.
The conservative bloc leads opinion polls, with some polls putting it higher than the combined support of the three parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s ruling coalition with the Social Democrats, the Greens and the Free Democrats.
North Rhine-Westphalia State Premier Hendrik West said Monday he wouldn’t join the race and that he was backing Merz, even though he was a potential candidate for the post.
Earlier, Bloomberg quoted a source familiar with the decision as saying that Merz would run as a conservative candidate for chancellor.
Merz is known for his pro-Ukraine stance, calling for a peaceful settlement of the armed conflict, a ceasefire and the start of peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, although he has previously consistently called for expanded military aid to Ukraine, and has particularly criticized Chancellor Olaf Scholz for refusing to supply it with German long-range Taurus cruise missiles.
Merz plans to visit Germany’s neighboring European countries as part of his election campaign, particularly France and Poland.
According to sources close to the CDU leadership, Merz may meet, in particular, French President Emmanuel Macron during an official visit to Paris, Bild newspaper reported.
