Conservative Merz confirms he will run against Scholz next year
Opposition leader Friedrich Merz (CDU/EPP) confirmed on Tuesday (17 September) that he will run against German chancellor Olaf Scholz in next year’s national elections, as he secured the backing of his internal opponents.
Merz’s opposition list, an alliance of the centre-right CDU and its Bavarian sister party CSU, is currently the favourite to win next year’s election. A recent Insa poll puts its support at around 33%, ahead of the far-right AfD and 19% ahead of Scholz’s centre-left SPD (14%).
“We’re going into 2025 with the intention of retaking the leadership responsibility for our country (…) with policies that will bring Germany back to the front,” Merz told journalists at a snap press conference in Berlin, together with CSU leader Markus Söder.
He used his statement to slam Scholz’s centre-left ‘traffic light’ coalition for its migration and economic policy, while hinting that his focus would be on the latter.
“The big topic that we have been occupied with for a long time in Germany is the economic situation in Germany. The economic situation in Germany is precarious,” he added, referencing Germany’s anaemic growth since the start of the Ukraine war.
The decision for Merz on Tuesday came as a surprise, after German media reported this weekend that the CDU was planning to choose its lead candidate after Sunday’s regional elections in the state of Brandenburg.
While the CDU’s leader is conventionally in pole position to run for chancellor, they are not automatically nominated, as the party must agree on a joint candidate with the CSU.
But a statement of support for Merz from Hendrik Wüst, the CDU prime minister of the state of North Rhine Westphalia, accelerated the process on Monday. Wüst had previously been rumoured to harbour ambitions to lead the CDU into the election.
Irritations among the CSU
The same was true for CSU leader Söder, who is also prime minister of Bavaria. Earlier this month, he reaffirmed his ambitions, as he said that he would “not cop out when it comes to taking responsibility for our country.” On Tuesday, he said that he is “fine” with Merz, however.
Beforehand, his party’s parliamentary leader, Klaus Holetschek, had complained about Wüst’s snap announcement, noting that “a different process had been agreed.”
As Merz said on Tuesday, the CDU was especially keen to avoid a damaging public contest as in 2021, when Söder wrestled for months with the CDU’s Armin Laschet for the candidacy. While Laschet was eventually crowned the CDU/CSU candidate, he subsequently lost the election to Scholz’s SPD.
Merz’s precarious popularity
Merz’s rise marks the CDU’s shift to the right after the era of centrist CDU chancellor Angela Merkel. Merz was long an internal opponent of Merkel, whom she pushed out from his post as the CDU’s parliamentary leader in 2004, after which he left parliament in 2009.
He returned to politics as CDU leader after a stint in business, however, after the unsuccessful 2021 election.
Nevertheless, Merz is the least popular pick for his party. In August, 38% of respondents to a representative ARD poll still preferred Söder, while 36% pick Wüst and 27% Merz. A direct comparison (RTL/NTV) between Merz and Scholz saw them neck-and-neck this month, at 27% and 23% support, respectively.
Growing field of candidates
Scholz has already stated that he intends to run again, though the SPD’s most popular politician is Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, who pollsters rank first overall in popularity among German voters.
Meanwhile, the AfD has also toyed with the idea of running a candidate for chancellor. Leader Tino Chrupalla stated in July that his co-leader Alice Weidel would be “a very good candidate.”
The Greens, currently polling in fourth place, are yet to make a decision on the matter. Previously, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who was defeated by Scholz in 2021, said she would not run, leaving Vice-Chancellor and Economy Minister Robert Habeck as the frontrunner.
https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/german-conservative-chancellor-hopefuls-show-face-at-party-conference/
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