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Sebastian Lechner: "Together do clear and good opposition work"
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Swen gatekeeper / dpa
After the defeat of the Lower Saxony CDU in the state elections and the resignation of party leader Bernd Althusmann, the new state parliamentary group leader Sebastian Lechner is also to become party leader.
The 41-year-old was the only candidate for election at a state party conference on January 21, 2023, the party announced after the deadline for proposals had expired.
Lechner was proposed by the Hanover district board on Wednesday.
In the state election on October 9, the CDU had the worst result in a state election in Lower Saxony since the 1950s.
State leader and top candidate Althusmann – in the previous red-black state government Minister of Economics and Deputy Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) – then announced his retirement, as did the former parliamentary group leader Dirk Toepffer, whose successor was Lechner.
Lechner said on Friday about his candidacy that he was "very aware of the great responsibility that comes with filling both offices well".
It is now a matter of “forming a large team and interlinking it with the newly established parliamentary group so that we can do clear and good opposition work together”.
Althusmann wished Lechner »good luck with the tasks ahead of him«.
In the past three weeks, the SPD and the Greens have agreed to form a new coalition.
Party conferences are to be held at the weekend about the coalition agreement presented on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, Weil is to be confirmed in the office of Prime Minister in the constitutive session of the new state parliament.
sak/AFP