Scrum for Merkel job opens wounds

Kit HOLDEN A bruising internal struggle to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel has left Germany’s once stable ruling conservatives in disarray and on the brink of implosion less than six months ahead of elections in September. The fight between long-time Merkel-ally Armin Laschet and his more popular Bavarian rival Markus Soeder threatens to further destabilise the once dominant CDU/CSU alliance, whose poll ratings have plummeted in recent months. Elected head of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union in January, Laschet would usually be the first choice to lead both the CDU and its Bavarian sister party CSU into September’s general election. Yet his claim to be chancellor candidate has been bitterly contested by CSU leader Soeder, who currently commands more support from both the public and conservative lawmakers. The scrap for Merkel’s throne has opened up historic wounds between the two parties and could even loosen their 16-year grip on the chancellery. With the clock ticking down to September 26 elections, the bitter divisions poisoning the conservatives spell a rocky campaign ahead for a post-Merkel era. It also leaves them exposed, with the internal squabbles sapping attention at a time when Europe’s biggest economy is struggling to end a raging pandemic that has killed 80,000 and ravaged thousands of businesses and livelihoods. HISTORIC SQUABBLES “The CDU/CSU has not seen a showdown like this for more than 40 years!” wrote Bild newspaper after Soeder and Laschet exchanged verbal blows in a meeting with conservative MPs. Yet it is by no means the first time that the CDU and CSU have been at odds over who should take the top job. In 1980, CSU leader Franz-Josef Strauss was nominated ahead of CDU candidate Ernst Albrecht and his then unpopular party leader Helmut Kohl. In 2002, meanwhile, the newly appointed CDU chair Angela Merkel stepped back to allow Bavarian rival Edmund Stoiber to run. In both cases, the CSU candidate was widely seen as a more charismatic and voter-friendly option, before being ultimately beaten in the polls by the incumbent social-democrats. Both Kohl and Merkel then defied their critics at the next elections, going on to become Germany’s longest-serving chancellors. — AFP