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Laschet (left) and Merz at the CDU party conference
Photo: CHRISTIAN MARQUARDT / POOL / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
Friedrich Merz, who was unsuccessful in the election for the CDU chairmanship, called on the delegates of the online party congress and the CDU members to support the new party leader Armin Laschet.
»I ask all delegates to take part in the final written vote and to give our new chairman Armin Laschet a strong vote.
And then we go to work together «, it says in an email from Merz to the CDU members, which is available to the dpa news agency.
After Merz Laschet offered on Saturday shortly after his defeat to take over the Ministry of Economic Affairs in the current government of Chancellor Angela Merkel, he now wrote that a year ago the CDU leadership had proposed to him that he would be very involved in the party to bring in concrete terms.
"I was and still am open to this idea." Merz added: "At the same time, I very much regret that irritations arose around my person over the weekend." He wanted to make it clear: "Even without an office I will keep my promise to continue working hard for the party. "
Merz's advance had caused incomprehension even in the ranks of his supporters.
Merkel immediately rejected Merz's offer.
As CDU chairman, she ousted Merz from the position of parliamentary group chairman in the Bundestag in 2002.
The relationship between Merkel and Merz has since been considered shattered.
"We should now support Armin Laschet with all our strength together in his responsible task"
Friedrich Merz
Merz appealed to the CDU members: "We should now support Armin Laschet with all our strength in his responsible task." The Union "needs unity and good cooperation, and we must fight together: for our convictions and for our country."
If the party does not do this, »Germany threatens to slide into right-wing populism or green-left neo-socialism.
Serious damage would be done to our country. "Merz thanked his supporters:" You have carried me with great passion over the past few months. "Now the party conference has decided in favor of Laschet.
Merz continued to write that the country's economic situation was serious because of the corona pandemic.
"That is why we must not leave Germany to red-red-green experiments at this historic hour." The CDU is used as a "force of the center, freedom, reason," it must embody the upswing perspective.
»Germany is about to make a comeback of innovations and is not leaving the future to America and China alone.
That's why the CDU can count on me in the future too. "
At an online party congress on Saturday, Laschet narrowly prevailed over Merz in a »digital preselection« by runoff with a lead of 55 votes.
The result of the postal vote, which is then required for legal reasons, is to be announced this Friday.
In the Union, after the defeat of Merz, it is feared that the split within the CDU into a camp of the more conservative Merz supporters and the Laschet supporters will continue.
Laschet basically supports a continuation of Merkel's middle course.
CDU General Secretary Paul Ziemiak asked the delegates in an email to which Merz's letter was attached to trust the new federal board elected at the party congress - "with Armin Laschet at the head as team captain."
Together they want to take on responsibility in a modern people's party, "which is united in unity and acknowledges that politics must come from the center of society and not from its fringes."
Icon: The mirror
kfr / dpa
