Wüst calls for a say in the Union's K issue
CDU General Secretary Linnemann considers party leader Merz to be the Union's candidate for Chancellor. North Rhine-Westphalia's Minister President Wüst thinks this is happening too quickly. He would like to see a broader debate in the candidate selection process.
The Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hendrik Wüst, insists on having a say in the debate on the Union's candidacy for Chancellor. "Just as the CSU understandably claims to have a say in this, so do the state chairmen and state premiers of the CDU," he told the magazine "Spiegel". This is also in line with the federal character of his party. "And it helps a candidate to have broad support and a strong tailwind for the election campaign."
Alongside CDU leader Friedrich Merz and CSU chairman Markus Söder, Wüst is currently being touted as a possible Union Chancellor candidate for the upcoming Bundestag elections. This will regularly take place in the fall of 2025.
It has been agreed within the CDU/CSU that the K question will be resolved in late summer 2024, around a year before the next general election. Merz announced last week that the timetable should be finalized by the CDU federal party conference in May. It is still unclear whether the candidacy will be decided before or after the state elections in three eastern German states in September.
CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann told the "Welt" broadcaster on Thursday that he considers Merz to be the candidate for Chancellor. If the party chairman wants it, "then he will be the Union's candidate for chancellor", said Linnemann. He also does not expect a power struggle for the candidacy like in 2021. Back then, the parliamentary group was divided. "It is not today. It is fully behind Friedrich Merz," emphasized the CDU Secretary General.
Before the 2021 federal election, a power struggle had broken out between the then NRW Minister President Armin Laschet and Söder over the K issue. Laschet won this, but failed in the election.
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Hendrik Wüst, as part of the Union parliamentary group, advocates for his input in the selection process of the Union's candidate for chancellor, like the CSU's state chairmen and state premiers do in the CDU. Alongside Friedrich Merz and Markus Söder, Wüst is among the candidates being considered for the Union's chancellor position in the upcoming Bundestag elections.
Source: www.ntv.de
