LASCHET SET TO LEAD ANGELA MERKEL’S PARTY INTO POLLS

Tue 20 April 2021:

Angela Merkel’s conservatives on Tuesday confirmed Armin Laschet’s nomination as their chancellor candidate in September’s election, as his rival conceded following a bitter battle that has left the bloc deeply divided.

“The dice have fallen. Armin Laschet is the chancellor candidate” of the conservative CDU-CSU alliance, said his rival Markus Soeder.

Laschet, 60, now faces another big battle: to connect with voters and win over frustrated fellow conservatives who backed his more popular rival, Markus Soeder.

Their Union bloc is the last major political force to nominate a candidate for chancellor in the Sept. 26 parliamentary election, in which Merkel is not seeking a fifth term after nearly 16 years in power.

The race turned into a heated duel after both Laschet, the leader of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, and Soeder, who leads its smaller Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, declared their interest in succeeding Merkel.