Armin Laschet, Angela Merkel loyalist, is new CDU leader
After a marathon contest to lead the ruling CDU, the party s most powerful state premier, Armin Laschet, prevailed at the finish. Whether he wants to or indeed can strive for the Chancellery remains to be seen.
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The 59-year-old Armin Laschet is the new chairman of Germany s center-right Christian Democrats (CDU).
Laschet was elected in a runoff vote during the digital party conference on Saturday, beating archconservative Friedrich Merz, 521 votes to 466, to resolve a three-way contest that had also featured the outsider 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 Angela Merkel s course and a CDU of the center.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn called for international solidarity to overcome the Covid-19 crisis. "No country, no party, no government can defeat the virus alone. It can only be done together," Spahn said in a speech to the .
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