Who is Merkel’s successor, Armin Laschet?

Armin Laschet is the new chairman of Germany’s Christian Democrats – the party that was led by Angela Merkel for almost two decades. Laschet was elected in a runoff vote during the digital party conference on Saturday, beating centre-right candidate Friedrich Merz, by 521 votes to 466, to resolve a three-way contest that had also featured the foreign policy expert Norbert Röttgen. Among the three candidates, Laschet, who since 2017 has been the premier of Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, is the one who stands most strongly for a continuation of Merkel’s centrist course. 

A Catholic from the Rhine region, Laschet represents a large group of Christian Democrats that have always insisted on combining moderate conservative values with the principles of the social market economy. Laschet has vowed to do everything to allow his party to do well in upcoming regional elections and to keep the party’s hold on the position of chancellor after the general election in September.