Laschet Gains Edge in Fight to Succeed Merkel as Chancellor Bloomberg 3 hrs ago Arne Delfs (Bloomberg) -- Armin Laschet gained the upper hand in the battle to succeed Angela Merkel at the head of conservatives’ ticket this September after winning a clear majority in a vote among his party’s leadership, putting pressure on his rival to step aside. Laschet, the head of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, won the backing of 31 out of 46 members of his party’s top committee -- or 67% -- in a ballot early Tuesday morning to determine who should lead the center-right bloc into the national election. His rival for the top job, Bavarian State Premier Markus Soeder, won just nine votes, while six abstained.