Bild-Soeder To Accept CDU Choice, Laschet Set To Be Nominee

Germany's Bild is reporting that Bavarian Minister-President Markus Soeder will 'probably accept' the decision of the executive committee of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to back party head Armin Laschet for the position of chancellor candidate. Soeder is due to give a press conference at 1200CET (0600ET, 1100BST) according to Bild.

• Following a six-hour virtual meeting last night, the CDU presidium backed Armin Laschet to be the joint centre-right Union parties' candidate for chancellor with 77.5% of votes in favour of Laschet, with 22.5% in favour of Soeder, head of the smaller Christian Social Union (CSU). There were 40 valid ballots cast with 6 abstentions, so with those taken into account Laschet's support falls to 67%, hardly an overwhelming show of support.
• There is no official mechanism for deciding a joint CDU-CSU candidate for chancellor, resulting in the chaotic decision-making process seen over the course of the past couple of weeks.
• Laschet is seen as a continuity candidate for outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel, with a strong pro-EU policy stance, good links with migrant communities, and a political style that is more effective in behind-closed-doors negotiations than in front of cameras or amongst the general public.
• The Union parties bitter powers struggle contrasts with the centrist Greens, who selected Annalena Baerbock as the party's chancellor candidate yesterday. Laschet polls extremely poorly against Baerbock, and indeed SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz, so his nomination markedly increases the prospects of the CDU losing power to a 'traffic light coalition' of the Greens, Social Democrats, and Free Democrats.