Merz, Laschet, Röttgen: Kramp-Karrenbauer warns of 'ruinous competition' for CDU chairmanship

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CDU leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer: "Everyone has to consider setting an example as to whether they are suitable to take on higher management responsibility"

Adam Berry / AFP

CDU leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has called on the candidates for their successor to deal responsibly with their candidacy. "Whether a selection of good candidates turns into a ruinous competition is the responsibility of each individual," she said on Sunday in an interview for the ZDF program "Berlin direkt". "Everyone has to consider setting an example as to whether they are suitable to take on higher management responsibility."

The new CDU chairperson is to be elected at a party conference in Stuttgart at the beginning of December. Former parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz, North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Armin Laschet and foreign policy expert Norbert Röttgen are running. Kramp-Karrenbauer does not believe that there is still an amicable solution in the race for the top office.

Since all the candidates had declared that they wanted to take part in the party congress, it was a "hypothetical and theoretical discussion, and one then didn't need to continue it". An amicable solution is still the desire of the party. "But it is up to the candidates themselves whether they agree to it, and so far I have at least no signals that that would be the case."

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Despite the corona crisis, Kramp-Karrenbauer assumes that the party conference can take place in December as planned with a chairman election. "If it's somehow possible, we will and we want to do that," she said. The CDU will organize the party congress while maintaining its role model function and according to what the authorities approve. A wide variety of formats should be proposed for this. The CDU board will then decide more precisely in two weeks.

Kramp-Karrenbauer mentioned the possibility of shortening the delegates' meeting so that the topics of follow-up and hygiene rules can be observed. There is a whole range of possibilities, and digital formats should also be taken into account.

Meanwhile, Laschet said in the "Neue Westfälische" (Monday edition) that he would have no aversions to a grand coalition at federal level in future. "I think the current grand coalition is working well; it has proven itself in the pandemic crisis," said the North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister. When asked which alliance he personally liked more, one with the SPD or with the Greens, he said "one with the FDP". Laschet said that the CDU chairmanship was also associated with a “general willingness” to run for chancellor. But it applies: "After the election of the chairman we will discuss the candidate for chancellor with the CSU."

Fok / AFP / dpa