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Mario Czaja
Photo: HANNIBAL HANSCHKE / AFP
Mario Czaja is the new Secretary General of the CDU.
The preferred candidate of the new party leader Friedrich Merz was elected to succeed Paul Ziemiak by the 1001 delegates at the 34th party conference of the CDU.
Czaja received 875 of the 964 votes cast, which corresponds to an approval of 92.89 percent.
"I am very happy to accept the election and thank you for the great trust," said the former Berlin Senator for Social Affairs after the election.
He thanked his predecessor Ziemiak for the friendship and cooperation.
Ziemiak and Merz had spoken out in favor of Czaja before the election.
Merz was previously elected CDU chairman in the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus with an approval of 94.62 percent.
Formally, however, Merz is not yet in office: the digital election of the delegates must be confirmed in writing, the counting of the votes should take place on January 31st.
As in the previous year, the event took place digitally due to the pandemic.
For Merz it was the third attempt to become head of the Christian Democrats.
Last year he lost the election against Armin Laschet, in 2018 he lost to Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.
There was no opponent this time.
Merz succeeds Armin Laschet as chairman, who only held the office for one year.
He ran as the Union's candidate for Chancellor in the Bundestag elections and announced his withdrawal from the party leadership after the historically poor performance of the CDU and CSU.
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