The Telegraph
Armin Laschet: Safe choice to replace Angela Merkel, but can he lead the party to victory?
Angela Merkel’s conservatives on Tuesday confirmed Armin Laschet’s nomination as their chancellor candidate in September’s election, as his rival conceded following a bitter battle that has left the bloc deeply divided. “The dice have fallen. Armin Laschet is the chancellor candidate” of the conservative CDU-CSU alliance, said his rival Markus Soeder. Mr Soeder, the leader of the CDU’s smaller Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, had faced off against Mr Laschet for over a week in a standoff that laid bare deep divisions in Ms Merkel’s party. Mr Soeder, whose personal poll ratings are much better than Mr Laschet’s, had significant support in the CDU. The Union bloc is the last major party to nominate a candidate for chancellor in the Sept 26 parliamentary election, in which Ms Merkel is not seeking a fifth four-year term. The 60-year-old Mr Laschet is the governor of Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia. Mr Soeder is the governor of Bavaria. Profile: The uninspiring choice of Armin Laschet The son of a miner from the town of Aachen on the Dutch border, Mr Laschet has made his way to the top of German politics by combining a steely ambition with the sunny demeanour typical of the Rhine region. The 60-year-old’s election as party leader this January is the latest step in a winding career. He entered the Bundestag in his early thirties, did…
