Over 91% of the Vote for Merz: Party Celebrates Result—Including Some Predecessors
Laschet sees tailwind for Merz: "Grandiose result" - Friedrich Merz secures landslide re-election as CDU leader with 91% backing
Former CDU leader Armin Laschet hailed the election result of his successor, Friedrich Merz, as a powerful mandate for the government's future work. "This is a spectacular outcome—over 90 percent in a secret ballot, at a challenging time for the federal government's reforms," the former North Rhine-Westphalia state premier told the German Press Agency (dpa) at the CDU's federal party conference in Stuttgart.
Laschet said the result was a strong endorsement for everything Merz would now undertake—whether in the federal government, in coalition with the SPD, in pushing through upcoming reforms, in clearly distancing the party from the far-right AfD, or in international policy. "It's simply clear, decisive, and strong."
Philipp Amthor, parliamentary state secretary in the Digital Ministry, also called it an "extremely strong result." "I had hoped for this, I'd been wishing for it all day, but you never really know for sure," he told dpa. The mood at the conference showed the party stood firmly behind Merz—a encouraging sign for the government's reform agenda as well. "A party leader with momentum is always good for stable governance." The outcome, he added, was "proof of unity."
In Stuttgart, the chancellor secured 91.17 percent of the vote in his second re-election as party leader—1.4 percentage points higher than in the most recent vote two years ago (89.8 percent). However, his first election in 2022 yielded an even stronger result, with 95.3 percent support. Laschet, by comparison, received 83.35 percent in the 2021 postal ballot for party leadership. Unlike other parties, the CDU does not count abstentions in its totals.
Read also:
- American teenagers taking up farming roles previously filled by immigrants, a concept revisited from 1965's labor market shift.
- Weekly affairs in the German Federal Parliament (Bundestag)
- Landslide claims seven lives, injures six individuals while they work to restore a water channel in the northern region of Pakistan
- Escalating conflict in Sudan has prompted the United Nations to announce a critical gender crisis, highlighting the disproportionate impact of the ongoing violence on women and girls.
