She be “deeply convinced”Merkel said on Saturday in Berlin that Laschet will become Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany after the election. In her speech, Merkel particularly emphasized the candidate’s personal characteristics.
“Over the years I have seen Armin Laschet as a person and a politician for whom the C in the name of our party is not just any letter, but was the compass of everything he has done and is doing”said Merkel. Let it be Laschet “It is always important, on the basis of our Christian image of man, to focus on the individual with his inviolable dignity, to build bridges between people.”
Merkel only in the background
Merkel will not run for the election on September 26th, she will resign from her position as Federal Chancellor. She is only sporadically involved in her party’s election campaign. After her speech on Saturday, only one more appearance is planned for the end of the election campaign. Since her resignation as CDU leader at the end of 2018, Merkel has no longer held any party office, she only attends a few party meetings.
“You know that since I gave up the chairmanship of the CDU almost three years ago, I have basically stayed out of election campaign events”said the Chancellor at the rally. “Predecessors in office who quit their political work should withdraw, that is my position and my firm conviction.”
The situation for the final spurt of the election campaign is extremely bad for the Union: In the polls, the Union had recently lost dramatically, while the SPD gained and in some cases moved past the Greens to second place. On the question of chancellor preference, SPD candidate Olaf Scholz is clearly in first place. Laschet’s personal polls hit a low right in time for the start of the hot election campaign phase.
Merkel closed her speech with an appeal to the party’s election campaigners: It “It is worth fighting in the remaining 35 days, every hour to ensure that the CDU and the CSU are strong in the German Bundestag, every hour to ensure that we shape Germany well and lead it into a good future – and of course with Armin Laschet as the our future Federal Chancellor.”
The CDU leadership estimates the situation internally as “ernst” and “difficult” one, and leading CSU politicians expressed their displeasure with the course of the election campaign so far in interviews.
“I’m not in the mood for opposition”
“There is great unrest in the Union, which is understandable in view of the polls”, said about CSU boss Markus Söder “Munich Mercury” (Saturday edition). Söder attributed the poor poll results mainly to the bad mood in federal politics for the CDU.
At the rally in Berlin, Söder said: In view of the falling polls, the Union is no longer just about how and with whom it wants to govern, but about whether it will govern at all. He added: “I’m not in the mood for opposition.” “With all the joy that we are getting together today and with all the self-assurance – let’s be honest for a moment”said Söder. “It is close, it will be very close, and today everyone has to understand that it really is about everything.”
The CSU chief encouraged the Union’s election campaigners: “If we give the impression of fearfulness and insecurity – how should the citizens trust us?”, he said. “Let’s finally do a sensible campaign, not talk about trivialities, which résumé was good and which laugh was appropriate”he continued. In his speech, Söder spoke out in favor of the common Union candidate Laschet as Chancellor. “In serious times you need a clear line, clear leadership – and neither Olaf Scholz nor Ms. Baerbock can give this clear leadership: Only the union with Armin Laschet can establish clear leadership”said Söder.
Söder extensively praised Chancellor Merkel’s balance sheet, who had spoken to him at the rally in Berlin’s Tempodrom. “The balance sheet of an outstanding Federal Chancellor speaks for itself”said Söder. “We have 16 years of Angela Merkel, and that was 16 extraordinarily good years for our country”he said – and added to Merkel: “It’s been a really great era for you.”
