CDU Voters Want Soeder As Chancellor Candidate, Not New Leader Laschet

A poll from Forsa shows relatively broad support for the new head of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union, Armin Laschet, following his win in the party's leadership election over the weekend.

• The poll shows that 41% of all voters and 57% of CDU voters think the North Rhine-Westphalia Minister-President Laschet is a good choice for party leadership.
• Centrist candidate Laschet unexpectedly defeated conservative candidate Friedrich Merz in the second round of the contest. Merz won the first round, but those delegates that had supported the other centrist, Norbert Rottgen, broke two-to-one in Laschet's favour in the second-round run-off.
• While Laschet is now head of the CDU, the poll shows that 51% of CDU voters want Markus Soeder - the head of the CDU's Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union and Minister-President of Bavaria - as chancellor-candidate, with only 25% opting for Laschet.
• In the aftermath of the vote, Merz made an offer to Laschet to serve as Germany's Economics Minister in the current gov't. This offer was not taken up, and 70% of poll respondents found Merz's bid for the ministry "inappropriate".