The race to replace Mutti Merkel

This is a 5-minute read

In mid-January, the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) will decide on how to elect a new chairman. Under normal circumstances that would happen at a convention but it is improbable that the governing party, which is doing all it can to keep the public from gathering, will organize a get-together for the delegates who vote on their new leader. But the two main contenders, Armin Laschet and Friedrich Merz, have bigger problems than that...

The big picture:

The CDU chairman will in all likelihood succeed Angela Merkel as Bundeskanzler on September 26th, 2021. With polls putting them on 35 percent, the next parliamentary election is the CDU's to lose. It is customary, but not a rule, for the party’s chairman to also be its chancellor candidate.

It’s complicated...

• Laschet is a moderate Merkel ally and the party leadership’s favourite. He is also governor of Germany’s largest state, North-Rhine Westphalia. Friedrich Merz is a conservative Merkel critic attempting a political comeback after 15 e…