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Chancellor Merkel and the new CDU leader Laschet (archive image)
Photo: Martin Meissner / picture alliance / ASSOCIATED PRESS
In the evening, the new CDU boss let himself be driven to Aachen-Burtscheid.
Taking a short breath at home with the family, then Armin Laschet started again.
Armin Laschet, 59, has been the ninth chairman of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany since Saturday afternoon.
He is now in an ancestral line with Konrad Adenauer, Helmut Kohl and Angela Merkel.
But Laschet is still Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia.
And there he is already in the middle of work this Sunday.
Maybe that's why he was so unable to enjoy his triumph the day before.
With the successful election at the party congress, Laschet achieved what many had recently no longer believed him capable of.
And he absolutely wanted this position, otherwise Laschet would not have prepared himself so perfectly for his application speech and had set in motion everything in the days before to organize a majority of the delegate votes.
And of course he now wants to take the next step, to become the candidate for chancellor of the Union parties in the federal elections.
But as head of government of the most populous German state, he first has to prove himself in this office - especially in the corona crisis.
The next Prime Minister's conference with Chancellor Merkel is already on Tuesday, and there are even more drastic measures in the room to finally break the wave of pandemics.
Learning from the example of Kramp-Karrenbauer
The CDU dealings are a few days behind anyway: Formally, the party congress is not yet over.
This only happens when the results of the postal vote are announced on Friday, as a legally secure confirmation of the digital elections.
The previous CDU chairman Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has already cleared her office in the party headquarters, but successor Laschet will not be taking over the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus until next weekend.
The new party leader therefore has a few days to think about his future relationship with Chancellor Merkel.
The two had brief contact after the election on Saturday, it is said.
They appreciate each other very much, Laschet was considered the Chancellor's preferred candidate.
But that also applied to Merkel and his predecessor Kramp-Karrenbauer.
And Laschet knows that this also failed because of Merkel.
Gaining a profile alongside the Chancellor and against her was an almost impossible task.
And even if Laschet has significantly better starting conditions: He too is now entering this potential danger zone.
As Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia - unlike the newly elected chairwoman Kramp-Karrenbauer in December 2018 - he holds an important office that gives him visibility.
And unlike at the turn of the year 2019, when the country and the CDU were Merkel-tired, Laschet is now coexisting with a chancellor who is more popular in the party and with the rest of the voters than seldom before.
But it shouldn't be easy for the new chairman either.
Just because of the pandemic.
In the past, the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Chancellor have clashed over and over again over Corona.
And that will not fail to happen in the coming weeks and months, as the different perspectives bring with it - here the Prime Minister of a federal state who has to represent its interests, there those who are politically responsible for the entire republic.
But now every new conflict would also become one between the CDU chairman and the CDU chancellor.
Problem case Merz
And then there is Laschet's problem with Friedrich Merz.
He has to be very clever so that it doesn't turn into a problem with Merkel for him.
After his renewed defeat for the party chairmanship - he was already slightly defeated by Kramp-Karrenbauer in 2018 - by no means decided to bake small rolls and retreat to the snow-covered Hochsauerland: Merz is making new demands.
First it was said that he wanted to join the CDU presidium, then Merz announced that he wanted to join the cabinet: as Federal Minister of Economics.
With this demand he put the new CDU chairman in a difficult position.
If Laschet does nothing for Merz, he should feel the anger of his numerous supporters in the party.
If Laschet comes too far towards him, it looks like he's being blackmailed by Merz.
Remarkable: It was Chancellor Merkel - and not Laschet - who immediately let Merz know via her government spokesman on Saturday afternoon that nothing would come of the change.
Laschet, on the other hand, tried to circumvent the topic in his public statements.
Before a clear announcement to Merz, he shrank back.
Meanwhile, it is hardly to be expected that the defeated Merz will give up after Merkel's rejection.
He let Laschet know that he does not intend to hang himself in a decorative office for the new chairman, but will then have an operational say.
Laschet has little chance of fulfilling this wish - the Chancellor will probably continue to stifle any attempt to involve her old adversary in the government business, especially since she has Peter Altmaier, an economics minister who is also well-liked in the CDU.
However, Laschet will have to find something for Merz.
He needs the former Union parliamentary group leader and his popularity if the new chairman wants the party to unite, no matter how many in the CDU are annoyed by Merz's maneuvers.
Laschet's future authority is also defined by the support in the camp of those who did not vote for him.
And only as a strong party leader will he be able to become a candidate for chancellor.
In addition: Merz would also be a help for Laschet in the upcoming state parliament election campaigns, as he has great support in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate, and in general Merz is considered
the
driving force
at the CDU base
.
Nevertheless, the elections in the southwest of the Republic of Laschet are the first practical test as party leader.
How does Laschet intend to solve this dilemma?
In any case, this should not work with the suspension principle.
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