The CDU and the candidate for chancellor: who will lead the Union in the next federal election? Friedrich Merz or Hendrik Wüst?
One thing was sworn in the Union after the 2021 election debacle: never again should an election campaign go as wrong as it did in 2021! In the next election, the party would like to be earlier with the choice of candidates. Until then, the following applies: fewer personnel debates, more factual issues.
But the CDU is a party of power like no other. And so the K-question has long been there: does one want it – or does the other do it?
One is Friedrich Merz, who of course thinks he is the better chancellor. Merz has secured his power in the party, the polls in the Union speak for him. In the past, that would have easily been enough to secure the chancellor candidacy. But some find Merz too rumbling, for others the 67-year-old is too old.
The reservations are reinforced by a prime minister who almost seems to be an alternative: Hendrik Wüst, prime minister in North Rhine-Westphalia, is at 47 years old an alternative proposal.
In Düsseldorf he also governs with the Greens, which makes him interesting for all black-green sympathizers in the Union. Whether Wüst actually reaches for the chancellor candidacy is by no means certain. Unlike the party leader, he would still be at the prime of his chancellor age in the next election, probably in 2029.
Merz, on the other hand, has to make a decision. Either he reaches for the chancellor candidacy – or he becomes a party leader of the transition.
In Berlin, Hesse and Bavaria will be elected in 2023 – with a signal effect for the traffic lights?
