Armin Laschet seemed to be the loser of the Corona crisis for a long time, but the mood could turn.
Even conservatives are praising him more and more.
That's good for him - and bad for Markus Söder.
Armin Laschet was never ahead in the polls about the CDU chairmanship.
In the meantime the picture has changed a bit.
Can the NRW Prime Minister catch up again?
Berlin - can
Armin Laschet
still catch up?
On Saturday the
Prime Minister of
North
Rhine-Westphalia will
travel
to the Erzgebirgskreis.
With his Saxon colleague
Michael Kretschmer he
visits a mine, later he is at the 30th anniversary of the Free State.
It's about symbolism and images, otherwise the people in the East usually cheer
Friedrich Merz
, Laschet's greatest opponent in the fight for the
CDU chairmanship
.
And now?
Is Laschet back on the defensive: Above all, he has to explain why he is at the gala concert with 2000 people, while
strict rules still apply
in
North Rhine-Westphalia
.
Race for CDU chairmanship open - can Laschet catch up?
A good three months before the planned Stuttgart election party conference, the race for the
CDU chairmanship is
completely open.
The situation is particularly tricky because the question is always in the background: Does the new
CDU boss
also have the
candidacy for chancellor
in the cross?
In the polls,
Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU)
is far ahead of the CDU candidates.
Before the summer break, some in the
CDU leadership had
great doubts as to whether
Laschet
could get out of the polls.
But if you look around in the
Union
at the moment, the picture could still turn.
Maybe, so it is said behind closed doors, Laschet was
done injustice
in the
Corona crisis
compared to the rigid Söder.
The opposite picture: approval for Söder is weaker - praise for Laschet
Söder
was long considered a strong man in the crisis, his popularity ratings were downright unearthly.
But he is finding it increasingly difficult
to explain
his strict
Corona course
, which is also noticed negatively in conservative circles.
The “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” recently sang a song of praise for
Laschet
, who was the
first top German politician to “advertise a sense of proportion and liberality”
in the
fight against Corona
.
Conclusion: Now the numbers would prove him right - and not his rival Söder.
Will the wind turn on the
chancellor question
?
First of all,
Laschet
wants to become the
CDU boss
- and the competition never sleeps.
It
is said of
Merz
that he is working intensively on the possible delegates for the party congress.
His problem:
it hardly appeared
in the
corona pandemic
.
At the moment, even the
foreign politician Röttgen,
who is considered an outsider, is
attracting more attention - on the subject of Navalny.
It is not for nothing that Merz has recently expressed himself critical of the future of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline: As a consequence of the poisoning of the Kremlin critic, he is calling for a two-year moratorium on the construction of the pipeline.
Will NRW election help Armin Laschet?
For
Laschet,
there is an important milestone coming up at the end of the week: At home in
North Rhine-Westphalia there
is
local election *
.
If the Christian Democrats of the SPD can take away mayor posts on Sunday, as in Düsseldorf, this should also pay into his account.
Söder
and the
CSU
are
emphatically staying out
of the dispute over the
CDU chairmanship
.
Behind closed doors, however, the Union sister can hear that
Laschet
has
caught up
with
Merz and
that it is probably approaching the Prime Minister.
And the
candidacy for chancellor
?
Even earlier critics of Söders on the CDU side believe today that the 53-year-old has changed in the office of Prime Minister.
The
Chancellor
, too, it is said, thinks differently about him today than she did a few years ago.
Since he was one of the sharpest critics of their migration policy.
CDU: Time is running out - will the CDU crown its candidate for chancellor at the party congress?
Some in the
Union are
calling for the
K question to be
resolved quickly
.
CDU Vice Thomas Strobl,
for example, advertised in “Bild” for a “decision in the time frame of the
CDU party congress
” and warned: “A month-long hanging game doesn't help anyone, only the political opponents.” However, the CDU is initially concerned with a lot More fundamental question: Can
a new chairman even be elected
because of
Corona
?
On September 14th, the day after the
NRW election
, the party executive committee should decide.
The aim is to hold on to the meeting of 1001 delegates.
The party congress could take place on December 4th or 5th, in a scaled-down form.
Alternatives are also being planned, for example with even more digital formats. But even if there were a change in the party law by then that would allow elections via video conference - this variant is
considered unlikely
in the
CDU
. On the one hand, there is a great fear of being challenged. On the other hand, the three candidates absolutely want a face-to-face meeting. Because of the symbolic power of the pictures of a jubilant party congress.
Jörg Blank * Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital-Redkationsnetzes