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Hesse's Prime Minister Volker Bouffier (CDU)
Photo: Michael Kappeler / picture alliance / dpa
In view of the current weakness of the CDU, there is growing pressure in the Union for an early decision on the candidacy for chancellor.
The party chairmen Armin Laschet (CDU) and Markus Söder (CSU), who are considered competitors, originally agreed on a period between Easter and Pentecost - i.e. up to six weeks.
In the meantime, several party members are pushing for a quicker clarification.
Hesse's Prime Minister Volker Bouffier (CDU) has now asked Laschet and Söder to decide the question of the candidate for chancellor in the course of the coming week.
Otherwise the party presidia would show a way to the decision, he told the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung".
Laschet and Söder would now have to commit themselves and it would be pointless to wait "four weeks" and hope for a "Pentecost miracle", according to Bouffier.
Pressure from all sides
The CDU politician Friedrich Merz, the head of the campaigning CDU in Saxony-Anhalt, Swen Schulze, and Union faction leader Ralph Brinkhaus also called for more speed.
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Merz, who spoke out in favor of Laschet in the “Westfälischer Anzeiger” and “Sauerlandkurier”, said: “I hope that the question of the candidacy for chancellor will be decided in the next few days.
It has nothing to do with Easter or Pentecost.
What do we want to wait for?
To the resurrection - from whom?
On the Holy Spirit - for whom?
It is time."
Schulze from Saxony-Anhalt said in SPIEGEL: “The K question must be clarified in the next two weeks.
We need quick clarity for the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt. «There will be elections on June 6th.
However, he did not commit to one of the opponents.
“It is important to us to deal with the specific challenges facing East Germany.
Laschet had recently shown greater interest, and Markus Söder should do the same.
He is invited to speak to us at any time, «says Schulze.
(Read the whole interview here).
Brinkhaus had been quoted by the newspapers of the Funke media group: "In my opinion, the decision as to who will run for the Union as candidate for chancellor should be made in the next two weeks."
Discussion on including the political group
There are currently discussions in the CDU on the question of whether the candidate for chancellor should be determined by a vote in the joint parliamentary group.
In a joint appeal on Friday, 50 CDU MPs demanded that the decision on the candidate for chancellor should "be discussed in a parliamentary group meeting and, if in doubt, decided there".
Hesse's Prime Minister Bouffier has now spoken out against it.
He criticized the idea and recalled that such a procedure had already ended in 1979 with the Union's electoral defeat.
At that time, Franz Josef Strauss had ultimately lost to Helmut Schmidt.
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“The vote at the time was a stopgap solution because there was no other way,” said Bouffier.
The parliamentary group only comes into play "if the parties decide that" - but that would not be his "preferred option".
He could not imagine deciding without the two party praesidia.
"I would not accept that," said the Hessian head of government, who is himself a member of the CDU presidium.
On this Sunday, Laschet and Söder are doing a kind of show in front of the Union faction leaders: At a closed meeting they want to discuss with the MPs under the motto "How do we shape the future?"
In the CDU and CSU it was considered rather unlikely that a decision would be announced by then.
jme / AFP / dpa
