In Germany, the CDU convention marks the party’s transformation around a new program

Three years after suffering a crushing defeat in the 2021 legislative elections, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is determined to return to power in 2025.^e The conference organized in Berlin from Monday 6 May to Wednesday 8 May was particularly significant: just over a year before the next election, the gathering was intended to show that the big German right-wing party, dominated by Angela Merkel for two decades, , capitalized on his years of opposition to rebuild around a new leader and a new plan.

On both counts, his conference was a success. On Monday, Friedrich Merz was re-elected leader of the CDU with 89.8% of the vote. Of course, observers did not fail to point out that he performed well (95.3%) in his first election as party leader in January 2022. But more than his score, Mr. Mers Re. -Selected This is an event: Since the departure of Mr.^me Merkel stepped down as leader of the CDU at the end of 2018, and her two successors — Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and then Armin Laschet — could not even run for a second term because they were competing internally.

Thanks to this re-election with a very large majority, Mr. Merz is eligible to be put forward as a candidate for chancellor, a question to be decided after regional elections scheduled in September in the three former Länder (Saxony) of East Germany. , Thuringia and Brandenburg). To do this, however, he still has two obstacles: no one in his party standing in his way, and the Christian Social Union (CSU), the CDU’s ally in Bavaria, standing behind him.

Regarding the way the Congress was conducted, Mr. MERS can be relatively reassuring in both of these respects. Within the CDU, its most serious rival, Hendrik Wüst, the minister-leader of Germany’s most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia, has become less right-wing and more prudent.

As for the CSU, its leader Markus Söder wanted to show that he did not represent a threat. “Of course the leader of the CDU is the favourite [pour être le candidat commun des deux partis à la chancellerie] »The Bavarian leader made the promise on Tuesday during the CDU congress. I’m not the one to stop him from winning in 2025, he added. In 2021, the leader of the CDU, Mr. As opposed to trying to impose himself against Laschet, Mr. One way of saying that he will not challenge the legitimacy of MERS.

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