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Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) joined the Junge Union in 1961
Photo: Matthias Wehnert / imago images / Future Image
Wolfgang Schäuble is one of the most influential figures in the CDU.
He has been a member of the Bundestag without interruption since 1972.
He was Federal Minister and former parliamentary group and CDU party chairman, and has held the office of President of the Bundestag since 2017.
In the dispute over the Union's candidacy for chancellor, the 79-year-old intervened and supported Armin Laschet at the crucial moment.
With the reorganization of the CDU, Schäuble no longer wants to play a leading role in his party.
"He is not available for a candidacy for the national executive committee of his party," said a spokesman for Schäuble in the newspapers of the Funke media group.
However, Schäuble was directly elected in his constituency.
He therefore intends to exercise his mandate as a member of parliament “for the full electoral term”.
As President of the Bundestag, Schäuble has so far been a member of the CDU Presidium by virtue of office.
In the new electoral term, however, the SPD, as the strongest force in the Bundestag, is entitled to the position of President of Parliament.
The CDU leadership decided on Monday to decide on the successor to party leader Armin Laschet by the beginning of 2022.
As a consequence of the worst result in a Bundestag election, a special party congress should also re-elect the entire leadership of the CDU from the Presidium and the Federal Executive Committee.
Bouffier and Strobl leave new candidacy open
According to the Funke newspapers, the deputy CDU federal chairmen Volker Bouffier and Thomas Strobl left it open whether they would run for these offices again.
"That will be decided by the state chairman in due course," said a party spokesman for the CDU Hessen with a view to Bouffier.
A spokeswoman for the CDU Baden-Württemberg said, according to the information about Strobl's future in the federal party: "First the state, then the party, then the person - we will answer personnel questions in due course."
Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier and Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer announced last weekend that they would be giving up their Bundestag mandates in order to make room for the "generation change" in the CDU.
lau / AFP
