Centrist Laschet Picked to Lead Merkel’s Divided CDU Party

Centrist Laschet Picked to Lead Merkel’s Divided CDU Party
The new elected Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party leader Armin Laschet speaks after being elected at the party's 33rd congress, held online because of the COVID-19 pandemic, in Berlin, Germany, Jan. 16, 2021. Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters
Reuters
Updated:

BERLIN—Centrist Armin Laschet positioned himself on Saturday as the man to heal divisions among Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats after they chose him to lead the party, putting him in pole position to succeed her as Germany’s chancellor.

Laschet, premier of the country’s most populous state and the self-styled Merkel continuity candidate, beat arch-conservative Friedrich Merz in a ballot of CDU party delegates.