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Ralph Brinkhaus (CDU) remains parliamentary group leader of the Union in the Bundestag
Photo: via www.imago-images.de / imago images / Political-Moments
Two days after the federal election, Ralph Brinkhaus (CDU) was confirmed as chairman of the Union parliamentary group. In the constituent meeting of the parliamentary group, however, he was not elected for one year as usual, but only until the end of April 2022, according to SPIEGEL information. Accordingly, he received 85 percent of the vote. The top of the CDU and CSU had agreed on the shortened term of office, in return there should be no opposing candidates.
With the compromise, the party leaders prevented a fight vote. Potential opponents would have been Jens Spahn, Friedrich Merz or Norbert Röttgen. "The fact that other candidates, who can also imagine that, have consented to this is a strong sign of the community we need now," said CDU party leader and Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet. For this there should have been a lot of applause in the meeting.
Laschet had already announced on Monday that he had suggested that Brinkhaus should be the parliamentary group leader for the time being "in the phase of these coalition negotiations".
According to this, Brinkhaus was to remain in office until the constituent session of the Bundestag on October 26th - which the latter rejected outraged.
The group feared that there might be opposing candidates and that the Union might paint a picture of conflict.
Laschet also admits mistakes
At the meeting, Laschet also admitted campaigning errors, and according to participants he said he made mistakes as a top candidate.
"I regret that very much." The vice-parliamentary group leader Gitta Connemann demanded personal consequences.
“We live in two worlds.
One is talking about government contracts - the base is talking about the historically worst election result, "said Connemann according to SPIEGEL information.
Read everything important about the federal election in the live blog.
Laschet had again advertised at the meeting for explorations with the Greens and FDP.
"Those who voted for us say: Don't give up on Jamaica so quickly," he said, according to participants.
There are strong signals from the FDP in the direction of the Union.
However, CSU boss Markus Söder had previously said that the election result had to be respected.
This also includes congratulating SPD Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz on his election victory.
He sees no government mandate for the Union.
In the federal election, the Union ended up with 24.1 percent, more than 1.5 percentage points behind the SPD.
It is still unclear whether the Union will go into opposition or, despite the defeat, still have a chance to form a government with the FDP and the Greens.
The background to the discussions about the parliamentary group chairmanship is that in a traffic light coalition made up of the SPD, Greens and FDP, as leader of the opposition, he would play a central role in the Bundestag.
hba / dpa