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Armin Laschet and Markus Söder
Photo: Michael Kappeler / dpa
After a long power struggle, Armin Laschet prevailed against Markus Söder in the race for the Union's candidacy for chancellor.
However, the two politicians seem to view the election campaign quite differently.
CDU boss and candidate for chancellor Laschet opened the election campaign with an attack on the Greens.
The party had "little to offer in terms of content," he said in an interview with the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" ("SZ").
The Union will emphasize this in its election campaign.
Laschet announced that it would focus on economic policy.
It is about detoxing the bureaucracy, a service-oriented state and digitization.
"We need a new start-up era," said Laschet, "the Greens cannot do this".
Looking at the top candidate for the Green Party, Annalena Baerbock, he said: "She talks, I act".
The Greens didn't have to prove anything for 16 years.
"It will be the most difficult election campaign in the Union since 1998"
According to Söder, however, the Union parties have to prepare for the toughest federal election campaign in more than twenty years.
»One thing is clear: It will be the most difficult election campaign in the Union since 1998. The polls do not show a good picture.
And the starting position is also relatively difficult, ”said the Bavarian Prime Minister on Sunday evening in the ZDF“ heute journal ”.
There is a lot of work to be done, because the leadership claim of the CDU and CSU must also be substantiated in terms of content.
People did not choose past successes, but expected "hunger and inventiveness".
He explicitly referred to the Greens who, with Annalena Baerbock, sent a young candidate for chancellor "with fresh ideas" into the race.
The fact that he himself had to hand over the candidacy for chancellor to Laschet no longer hurts him, said Söder.
He would have liked to do it, but that was not "the plan of life" either.
According to a new poll, five months before the federal election, the Union has lost a lot of favor and was ousted from first place by the Greens.
In the “Sunday trend” of the Kantar opinion research institute on behalf of “Bild am Sonntag”, the Greens come to 28 percent, the Union only to 27 percent.
Even with a direct election to the Chancellor, Baerbock would have good cards, as an Insa survey for "Bild am Sonntag" revealed.
According to this, 30 percent would vote Baerbock directly, SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz would get 20 percent and Laschet 18 percent.
He would rather lead the Union into government in a coalition with the FDP, Laschet now told the »SZ«.
"The FDP is a good partner with whom you can advance the country," he said.
The Union's first electoral goal must be to remain the "strongest force".
CSU boss Markus Söder had expressed the expectation that the Union with Laschet as the top candidate in the federal election on September 26th would achieve a result "well over 30 percent".
asc / dpa / AFP